Beach walk brimming with nature’s bounty - WHITING BAY/BALLYSALLAGH, EAST CORK

WE set off, walking to the right along the beach, first fording a small stream.

According to Geoffrey Keating, a 17th-century priest, poet and historian, the River Blackwater at one time entered the sea at Whiting Bay but a “great convulsion of nature” in March 830 changed its flow and made its estuary at Youghal. One might fancifully ask if this stream was once that mighty river’s path.

The beach is broad at low tides, backed by a grassy slope; there are no dunes. In the far distance, we see Capel Island, 1km off Knockadoon Head at Youghal Bay’s southern entrance. The island’s tower is the truncated remains of a lighthouse which was built in the 1840s but not completed for fear its location would confuse it with other lights. The similar structure on Knockadoon Head is a signal tower from Napoleonic times. The island is now a bird sanctuary, managed by BirdWatch Ireland. According to legend, a notorious 17th century pirate named Nutt used Capel Island as a repository for his ill-gotten treasure, and at each burial site would murder a slave whose spirit would guard the hoard.