'It’s a piece of heaven, isn’t it?': A West Cork rainforest and the mission to rewild it

A year before his high-profile purchase of The Park Hotel in Kenmare, Bryan Meehan quietly became the owner of a West Cork rainforest.

Bryan Meehan, with his wife Tara, at Dromgarriff, Co. Cork. Photo: Bríd O'Donovan.

When we talk of rainforests, our default is to think of the tropical, the exotic. Towering trees that draw the eyes to the sky, unfamiliar sounds, overpowering heat.

Yet, like an open secret, Ireland too has its native rainforests.