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Here you can visit “Irelands Eden” www.theewe.com residents. It is connected to the mainland by Ireland’s
- Ireland’s only interactive sculpture garden or explore only cable car. The island, historically, was made up of
Glengarrif ’s Bamboo park . 3 villages- Ballynacallagh, Kilmichael, and Tilickafinna
respectively from east to west on the island. Quite a few
Garnish Island - Isle na Cuillin of the buildings that comprised these villages can still be
“Island of Holly” seen today. Another once bustling community lost to the
famine, to emigration - it surely has tales to be told yet
Located in the sheltered Glengarrif harbour Garnish nothing but stone to echo mumbling memories of those
Island is a world renowned Island garden of long gone inhabitants. As Dursey has no shops, pubs or
memorable beauty. Here you will find rare tropical restaurants, visitors are well advised to bring food and
plants thriving thanks to the influence of the warming water if they plan to go for a walk!
currents of the Gulf stream. Notable guests who have
stayed on this Island include writers George Bernard www.durseyisland.ie
Shaw, who stayed on the island in 1923 while writing
his play, Saint Joan, and the poet, artist and mystic, Æ Ardigole - Eadargóil,
(George Russell). Garnish Island is open to the public “between two inlets”
from April until October.
Adrigole is where today’s Global Ban on CFC’s took
www.glengarriff.ie root. The scientist Sir James Lovelock, author
of the Gaia theory of the earth, sitting in his holiday
Bere Island - An tOileán Mór cottage in Adrigole one summers day of 1968. Looking
out at the thick smog that lay across the village he
Located just 2kms offshore from the fishing port of started to wonder. Could it be caused by industrial
Castletownbere, Bere Island retains a distinct easy pollution blowing across from Europe, on an easterly
charm of rural Ireland. The Slieve Miskish and Caha wind? Having some years previously invented an ECD
Mountain ranges of the Beara Peninsula tower over or electron capture device, to measure air pollution
the island providing a dramatic backdrop. Home to a he was thus able to confirm that this smog was , in
population of just over 200 the island is roughly 11kms fact, industrial pollution. It was made up laregely of
x 5kms a size that is manageable for walkers and cyclists. Chlorofluorocarbons – CFC’s. Thus Adrigole became the
History remembers this Island as the place where the first in a worldwide netword of Atmospheric Pollution-
Bantry Longboat ran aground- where the hopes of the monitoring stations. Further research uncovered the
French’ and Ireland’s 1798 Rebellion lay at the mercy of a startling fact that CFC’s were the main cause of the
catastrophic storm. thinning of our ozone layer.

Due to its strategic location Bere Island offers a very The Gaia theory posits that Earth is itself a self
interesting heritage. Rich in archaeological sites dating -regulating living entity that continuously adjusts
from the Bronze Age through to Medieval times, here the elements to create the best physical and chemical
you can explore ring forts, standing stones, wedge tombs environment to sustain life. Gaia was a greek earth
and burial sites. At various stages the British constructed mother figure.
Martello towers, a signal tower, military barracks and a
military fortification which hosts two six inch guns, all Ahead, we are facing an increasingly bare and rocky
of which can be seen today. A quiet Island paradise for landscape of the Beara Peninsula. Far from the crows
bird watchers and plant lovers to delight at the many and din of the cities or the cosy chat of the towns, here
species to be found on land and at the water’s edge. in the rural periphery the spirit of ancient lore lives on.
The Beara Peninsula is home to the tales of the Hag of
www.bereisland.net Beara. If you take a notion to explore the rocky interior
landscape you may even chance to come upon her rocky
Dursey Island - Oileán Baoi form.

Dursey is an Island separated from the mainland Castletown - Bearhaven
by a narrow stretch of water called the Dursey Baile Chaisleáin Bhéarra
Sound. This channel has a very strong tidal race, with O Town of the Castle
a reef of rocks in the centre of the channel which is f all the peninsulas in the South West, Beara is the
submerged at high tides. This peaceful island is 6.5 km one that feels oldest. Look closely and you can see
long and 1.5 km wide with only a handful of permanent how the wind and rain have eaten into the rock so that
today only stubs remain of what were once peaks. Rather

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