Walk of the Week: ARDGROOM WALK, CORK-KERRY BORDER

WE continue on the L4911, crossing scenic Cappul Bridge at the head of Ardgroom Harbour. We are immediately in wild country, Tooreennamna and Tooth mountains behind us and the Iveragh mountains across Kenmare River, ahead. After 0.5km, we pass an unpaved roadway going left, with a yellow Beara Way waymark. We could make the nearby parking space our trailhead, shortening the walk by 2km.

We continue on the tarred road, the Beara Cycle Route, rough land on the left and tranquil Ardgroom harbour below us on the right. In July and August, the road verges seem on fire with swathes of orange montbretia in flower, and there are stands of purple loosestrife, pink Greater Willowherb, creamy meadowsweet and buddleia, blue or white. Across the Kenmare River, Sneem nestles beneath the range that rises to Carrauntohill, 1039m., Ireland’s highest peak.

We ask why huge Kenmare bay is called a river. The answer perhaps lies in its early Irish name, Inbhear Scéine, ‘wild river mouth’; the Roughty and Sheen spate rivers enter it. Another version holds that an English milord who owned the bay shores wanted to assert fishing rights and dubbed it a river so that these would be granted or granted at less cost.