West Cork cruising out of its league

IT MIGHT seem bit of paradox, but the best way to see Ireland’s raw, elemental natural beauty is to leave the place behind you, in your wake.

You don’t have to go far, mind, to see sheer splendour: a half a mile, a few miles, or in nautical terms, a league or two off the island’s coastline will do in many cases, opening up a fresh, new, waterborne perspective — new horizons, literally.

World traveller, actor and sailing fanatic Jeremy Irons has rightly described his home patch of water along the West Cork coast as “a promised land for leisure sailors”, raving about the amazing scenery, the setting and most often, the solitude.