Ring of Beara

Overview

The Ring of Beara does the same job as the Ring of Kerry – a loop around a mountainous Atlantic peninsula – with a fraction of the coach traffic, largely because the coaches can’t get on it: the passes are too tight for anything over 2.8 tonnes. The full circuit is about 137 km by Beara Tourism’s count, though you’ll see it quoted anywhere up to 148 km depending on where a source starts the loop and which side roads it counts. You can drive the core route in around two and a half hours without stopping, but that’s not the point. Give it a full day, or at least half of one, and let the stops set the pace.

The Ring is part of the Wild Atlantic Way, though the official WAW route peels inland over the Caha Mountains between Kenmare and Glengarriff rather than tracing the whole peninsula. Do the full loop anyway; the far end, out past Castletownbere, is where Beara earns its reputation.

History & heritage

According to local tradition the peninsula takes its name from Princess Beara, wife of the chieftain Owen Mór. The scholar Nollaig Ó Muraíle traces it instead to béarach, a dialect word for the rocks the sea breaks against – which, standing on the coast here, feels the more honest of the two.

Human activity stretches back to the Neolithic, with standing stones, stone rows and Bronze Age dolmens scattered across the hills. The O’Sullivan Beare clan used the peninsula as a final refuge after the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. English forces later built Martello towers on Bere Island to watch Bantry Bay, and the copper deposits around Allihies fuelled a mining boom that peaked in the 19th century. The Healy Pass road was cut in 1847 as a Famine relief work, carving a way through the mountains for isolated communities. The single most striking relic is at Ballycrovane: the tallest Ogham stone in Europe, more than five metres of standing stone incised with the old script.

Highlights along the route

Driving the Ring clockwise from Kenmare or Glengarriff keeps the sea on your right. If you only have time for two things, make them the Healy Pass and Dursey Island: one is the drive, the other is the adventure.

• Healy Pass & Caha Pass: The Healy Pass climbs to 334m at its summit, with the road stacking up in tight switchbacks and the view opening out over Glanmore Lake on the descent. Further east on the N71, the Caha Pass runs through three narrow, hand-carved tunnels blasted straight through the rock. Both are single-track in places with steep drops; take them slowly and be ready to reverse.
• Dursey Island: Ireland’s only cable car crosses to Dursey, a car-free island of signal towers, cliffs and seabird colonies. The car takes six passengers at a time, runs to set hours and closes in high wind, so it’s the one stop worth planning your day around rather than around.
• Glengarriff & Garnish Island: A short ferry from Glengarriff reaches Garnish Island and its subtropical gardens, laid out in the early 20th century around a grand house. The harbour crossing itself passes one of Ireland’s largest harbour seal colonies, usually hauled out on the rocks at low tide.
• Castletownbere & Bere Island: Castletownbere is Ireland’s largest whitefish port and the jumping-off point for Bere Island, whose Martello towers, lighthouses and quiet lanes make for easy heritage walking.
• Allihies & Eyeries: The Copper Mine Museum in Allihies tells the story of the mines, and Ballydonegan Beach nearby is a sheltered spot for a swim. A short drive on, the brightly painted cottages of Eyeries sit above the coast.
• Gleninchaquin Park: Tucked into the interior, a multi-cascade waterfall drops down the valley head above three glacial lakes, reached on a short, well-kept path.

Wildlife & nature

The peninsula is a designated Special Protection Area. Choughs and fulmars work the coastal cliffs, and the native Irish black bee – a rare, genetically distinct subspecies – survives here in a way it no longer does in much of the country. The Beara Way, a waymarked long-distance trail of roughly 196 km, follows much of the coastline and can be broken into day-length sections for a slower way of seeing the same ground.

Getting there & practical tips

• Starting points: Enter the loop at Kenmare (County Kerry) or Glengarriff (County Cork). Both have parking, accommodation and food.
• Driving conditions: Narrow, often single-track, with steep gradients and frequent need to reverse into passing places on the mountain passes. Allow extra time in winter or wet weather.
• Ferries & cable car: The Garnish Island ferry runs seasonally, roughly April to October. The Dursey cable car runs year-round but takes only six at a time and closes in strong wind – check before you commit to the far end of the peninsula.
• Cycling: The signposted Ring of Beara cycle route shares stretches with the Wild Atlantic Way. Expect steep climbs and little room to overtake on the passes.
• Not for coaches: Vehicles over 2.8 tonnes aren’t permitted on the route, and it’s genuinely unsuitable for large campervans in high season.

Fill the tank in Kenmare, Castletownbere or Glengarriff before you set off – petrol stations are thin on the ground between them, and rationing fuel on a single-track pass with a queue building behind you is nobody’s idea of a scenic drive.