Beara Peninsula

Will Sese, Shin Go Hall and Kingfisher there, of course.

Now, Eoin Dalton joins us this morning all the way from Eyries, isn't it? Neheary there on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork.

That's right.

Derrise.

No, uh, and nobody is proposing rewilding the whole of Ireland, you know? We need to eat, but at the moment, we're at the other extreme.

There is nowhere for nature, and we need to, to, to change that balance a little bit to give nature some places where it can thrive, too.

Could you have done your project on the Beara Peninsula now with the price of land the way it is?

I don't know, to be honest.

So you know, that space has been well looked after, and we're just saying maybe we'd like to put a bit of energy on the native woodland side of things.

So what we've said is 60,000 acres of land brought into restoration, right? Our area of interest is the west coast of Ireland, so everywhere from the Mizen or the Beara Peninsula in Cork right up to Inishowen in Donegal and, and maybe, you know, 30 or 40 or 50 kilometers inland from all those points.

That's our area of interest, and we're interested in bringing primarily woodlands back in those spaces.

But if you're familiar with these, the habitats, it's upland regions of Ireland.

So this is Bantry Bay.

This is Bantry Bay, and this is the Bear Peninsula.

The lighthouse is just beyond those poles west.

And it was the first time that electricity came to the headland in 1968 with the coming of the lighthouse.

Did I read correctly? Do you have a West Cork connection? Is there a Granda?

Yep, my grandfather, yep, is from the Bear Peninsula, yep.

Wow.

We can kind of claim everybody, really, down the line somewhere, can't we? Yeah.

Glengara 5 Mile Road Race 2026.

A soft West Cork day in the eastern side of Beara and 161 participants took part.

Wins for Danny Mullins from Bantry SE in a time of 27-12 and former Runner Diary podcast guest Michelle Kenny from Neve LSE making her Bayer debut in style with a 30-20.

Michelle wasn't the only family member in Glengariff.

Across the water, sheep said.

Further away, Beara.

And behind that, when the weather allows it, the mountains of Kerry.

I mean, Thin Lizzy already sung a song about it, Whiskey in the Jar.

So once again, you've got the 90, the 120 and the 160 kilometre.

Would the 90, 120 and 160 be for serious cyclists now? As I imagine the Beara Peninsula would present a few challenges.

There isn't a flat mile on it.

The 160 is a serious test of cycling, and that's actually a good majority of our cyclists actually do that.

Michael in West Cork says, "I heard you on about the Gardai, uh, being stretched, uh, due to, stretched to the limit due to work pressure.

Once upon a time on the Beara Peninsula, we had four sergeants and 16 Gardai.

Today, I don't know if a figure exists, as the last and only Gardai station standing on the Beara Peninsula is Castletownbere, which is rarely open.

The lights are on outside 24/7.

My resources tell me that the Bantry Gardai are constantly up and down the road to service Castletownbere and the hinterland.

Uh, perhaps you could look into these, uh, figures.

Thanking you." That's from Michael.

But isn't, isn't that, that figure out in the Beara Peninsula, four sergeants and 16 Gardai at a time, and that would have been reflected right around the country, and that was at a time when Gardai were hugely respected, and if you were, you know, a young fella or a young woman was stopped by a Gardai, oh, you were just-