Walk of the week: Beautiful views reward walkers on Sheep’s Head

Bantry to Drumclough loop of the Sheep’s Head Way

PASSING through the arch, we walk up the tree-lined driveway to reach the beautiful wrought-iron gates that lead to Bantry House and the magnificent gardens that surround it.

A circuit of the exterior of the house is well worthwhile. In the parterre, sometimes called the Italianate gardens, low boxwood and yew hedges are arranged in patterns, with paths between. Then, turning right at the house corner we pass a peristyle, a large terrace open at the front. On warm days, tea and sandwiches are served at tables looking out over a sunken garden and the bay. The scene on the terrace, with the tall, French windows behind, recalls a colonial mansion with white-uniformed servants delivering tiffin to functionaries of the Raj.