Eyeries

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Eyeries
Irish: Na hAoraí
County Cork
Eyeries Painted Houese.jpg
Painted houses in Eyeries
Location
Grid reference: V647508
Location: 51°41’37"N, 9°57’29"W
Data
Local Government

Eyeries (historically spelt as it is pronounced, Irees or Iries; is a village and its hinterland, on the Beara Peninsula in County Cork, near the border with County Kerry. It stands at the foot of a hilly area, with a beach nearby, and is home to several retail and tourist businesses.

One of the most south-westerly villages in Ireland, Eyeries sits on a bluff overlooking Coulagh Bay and the mouth of the long bay known as the Kenmare River, looking towards the Atlantic Ocean. It stands half-way along the north coast of the Beara Peninsula, at the base of Maulin, which, at 2,044 feet is the highest peak in the small Slieve Miskish Mountains.[1]

The Eyeries area consists of the townland of the same name, and parts of other nearby townlands, and including the area called Eyeries Beg ("little Eyeries"). It is close beside the county border of Cork and Kerry, just off the R571 regional road. The main local centre for the villages roundabout is Castletownbere.

Nearby, to the south, and passing along to the west, runs the Kealincha River, which is crossed by both old stone bridges and a modern footbridge.

About the village

Eyeries and the coast

The village has a Roman Catholic church, built 1823-1825,[1] and named for St Kentigern.

There is also a playground near the village centre, and another off the coast road to the southwest.[2]

Pairc na hAorai, at the northern end of the village, is the home ground of Urhan GAA, named for a townland two miles south-west of Eyeries.

On the outskirts of the village, opposite the graveyard at Cappaneil, is the Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat which has hosted hundreds of writers and artists since around 2000.[3] A little further from the village centre is the Milleens Cheese operation, based on the farm, belonging to the Steele family, from which Ireland's first craft cheese came.[4]

Nearby is the Ballycrovane Ogham stone, the tallest known, standing 17½ feet high and bearing the inscription 'MAQI DECCEDDAS AVI TURANIAS' which translates as "Mac Deich Uí Turainn" or "son of Deich the descendant of Turainn".[5]

About a mile to the south-west is a ruined stone circle, sometimes called 'Coulagh Stone Circle',[6][7] and to the northeast, in the Ardgroom area, are two stone circles, one in good condition, one a remnant.[8][7]

A walk has been developed around the village and the landscape in which it sits: the Eyeries Looped Walk, now known as the 'Eyeries Eco Walk'. It is partly connected to the Beara Way.[9]

On film

Eyeries was the location for the shooting of the film The Purple Taxi (also Le Taxi Mauve, 1977)[10] starring Fred Astaire, Peter Ustinov, and Charlotte Rampling, and also the 1998 TV series (from a Deirdre Purcell novel), Falling for a Dancer.

Outside links

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("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Eyeries)

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Eyeries". http://destinationbeara.ie/index.php/eyeries. 
  2. "All about Eyeries". https://eyeries.ie/all-about-eyeries. 
  3. "Anam Cara Writer's and Artists's Retreat". https://www.writing.ie/member-organisations/anam-cara-writers-and-artists-retreat/. 
  4. "Obituary: Veronica Steele". The Irish Times. 21 January 2017. http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/obituary-veronica-steele-1.2944808. 
  5. Burnham, Andy (1 January 2019). "Ballycrovane". The Old Stones of Ireland: A Field Guide to Megalithic and Other Prehistoric Sites (1 ed.). Watkins. pp. 38–39. "Nearest village: Eyeries / ogham stone, at 4.7m the tallest in Ireland" 
  6. Ó Nualláin, Seán (1984). "A Survey of Stone Circles in Cork and Kerry". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature 84C: 20. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Canfea Stone Circle - Sun's Out". 22 April 2018. https://roaringwaterjournal.com/tag/canfea-stone-circle/. 
  8. Ó Nualláin, Seán (1984). "A Survey of Stone Circles in Cork and Kerry". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature 84C: 18. 
  9. Eyeries Eco Walk: Eyeries Tidy Towns Committee
  10. "Eyeries". https://bearatourism.com/stay-eat-beara/eyeries.