mizen and sheeps head from skibbereen

The two "golfballs" on the summit are for aircraft tracking. Schull is a delightful seaside market town which attracts a remarkably cosmopolitan clientele. Here you wil be most welcome to visit the Planetarium.. About 7km further west you pass, on the left, a megalithic tomb. Locally it is known as the Altar Rock.

At Goleen you can choose either to hug the coast and go all the way out to Crookhaven, a pretty village where yachts like to shelter - or take the road past the fabulous beach at Barleycove, crossing the tide-head over a causeway where swans nest among the rushes, to Mizen Head, Ireland's Land End or Three Castles Head.

Having admired the tremendous seascapes all around, take the dramatic road along the north side of the Mizen peninsula. As the road falls gradually down towards sea-level the square shell of Dunmanus Castle rises ahead. It is associated with the late Eoin ("Pope") O'mahony and has been a rallying-place for the clan O' Mahony.

When you reach Toormore you will have about 88km, behind you and it's still 16km back to Ballydehob. But it's worth adding another 64km to travel and the rarely-travelled road to Sheep's Head, the small peninsula to the north of Dunmanus Bay. The journey begins gently, and grows in grandeur as the road proceeds westwards along the coast, through the sleepy and picturesque villages of Durrus, Ahakista with the memorial garden and Sundial by Cork Sculptor Ken Thompson as a memorial to the Air India disaster and Kilcrohane.
The road ends 8km farther on. If you persist to the very end - and your driving needs concentration over the last km or so - you will be reward with a supreme view with sea, islands and mountains all around.

Coming back down you have a better opportunity to view this remote end of the peninsula with its few snug farmhouses. On reaching Kilcrohnae again, a signpost directs you left to the Goat's Pass. The road goes gently upwards to the Pass, then plunges suddenly and steeply down the other side, with all of Bantry Bay and the Caha mountains beyond it. You reach Bantry 19km later, and from there return to Skibbereen by the road over the Barnageeha Pass to Ballydehob.

(Approx. 160 km)