Lockdown Loops – 1

While infection rates stay high in Ireland we are limited to a 5km radius from home. We are fortunate to live only a few metres from the Sheep’s Head Way so it is not too difficult to find loop walks but while the weather remains changeable the higher ridge routes are not advisable.

Reenmore Loop

We have walked this loop several times recently. The old green road to Kilcrohane has views up to the ridge of the peninsular, out over Dunmanus Bay and Carbery Islands to the Mizen and the Atlantic.

Along the green road, water flows from the ridge down a geological fault and under a small clapper bridge where a blackthorn tree stands by the wall. It is a ‘thin’ place where geological, historical and present day time seem to merge into timelessness.

A tapestry of old field walls to the south must have been part of a farm at one time but are now overgrown. A little boreen feels ancient as it crosses a shallow ford and descends around old buildings to the coast road.

At the top of a steep, muddy farm track with sheep standing sentry, a tiny house with chimneys on both gables must have been a warm home with a view but is now a roofless ruin. Below it, the stony strand at Reenmore crosses between the bay and a sea of reeds with Lord Bandon’s Tower standing above.

The road up from Reenmore passes a few houses before joining the road that runs along the south side of the Sheep’s Head and past the derelict house in my sketch.

About the route

The loop starts and ends by waypoint 444 on the Sheep’s Head Way.

View route in Google Maps
Distance: 5.5km