Magic of The Emerald Isle

The Hook lighthouse sits at the tip of the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford. It is over 800 years old, making it one of the oldest working lighthouses in the world - extraordinary that it has survived all this time despite many times being battered and damaged by Atlantic storms.

Useful information: the Hook Peninsular is the source of the expression “by Hook or by Crook” said to have used by Oliver Cromwell to describe his invasion of Ireland, as in “we will either land at Hook or, failing that, at Crook (a village on the other side of the estuary)”.

At the southern tip of Ireland, just beyond Cape Clear as it juts out into the Atlantic, is the Fastnet rock and Lighthouse. It is the destination of one of the world’s classic offshore yacht races, but which, in 1979 ended in tragedy, when 19 people lost their lives as a brutal storm swept in from the Atlantic.

On Achill Island, protected from the sea winds, an Irish bog illustrates just why Ireland calls itself the Emerald Isle.

On a bike ride around the northern edge of Achill, I came across the Busy Bee Hotel. What a lovely idea!

Travelling north into Donegal produced a wonderful view out across the bay just outside the busy fishing town of Killybegs.

A little further north again and a cycle ride to the village of Maghery led me to this 5000 year old “portal tomb”. Five thousand years old! - almost unimaginable.