The sun comes out, and the butterflies follow. Few and far between, we saw only three on a 6km walk, two small heaths and a solitary speckled wood spiralling about under some beeches.

PEOPLE are lured from all over the world to the beauty spots and hideaway havens of West Cork and, to a lesser extent, to East Cork.

SKIBBEREEN/BALTIMORE: LOUGH HYNE

IN Ringarogy, the peace and quiet of another era still reigns. The houses may be modern or modernised but on the lanes one rarely sees a car. There are few human artefacts to distract us from nature. Once, almost 800 people lived here; now, there are about 70. I can think of few more pleasant walks.

A long way away from the rest of the world.

OLD WORKHOUSE AND RATHCOOL WALK

ROARING WATER RIVER WALK, WEST CORK

Rossbrin and Stouke, West Cork

Schull home is still a winner, says Tommy Barker

CARRIGFADA HILL, WEST CORK

ADOPTED Irishwoman, the aviatrix Daphne Pochin Mould wrote the first book about Irish mountains in 1955.

IT was a debut that tumbled off a dream script. Time was slipping away on Cork’s All-Ireland minor football dream at the start of August with Armagh having taken a firm grip on their quarter-final.

UPON our return from Germany and the Czech Republic we were immediately grateful that we lived in Ireland where the temperature, as we drove west from Cork Airport, was 17.5°C.

SHAGS, despite their prejudicial name, are elegant birds, much more attractive than their cousins, the cormorants.

A CERTAIN, stone-faced look crept into rural sited homes across Ireland in the 1990s — and many would credit a west Cork builder Vincent Coughlan with popularising — if not even kick-starting — the trend in the 1980s.

RATS are being blamed for a massive breakdown in a mobile phone network in part of west Cork.

Tommy Barker says Heir Island property offers rare opportunity.

Damien Enright reviews a chronicle of an Ireland fast fading.

Tommy Barker on a familiar-sounding island that’s nowhere near New York.

Tommy Barker visits a West Cork property with its own guest cottage.

THERE’s more than a touch of the Spanish property to this Ahakista house in West Cork.