Riding high on Dursey Island

Journeying in a cable car with gaps in its floor across perilous waters is a fitting start to an adventurous day's walking on Dursey Island, writes TONY DOHERTY

I HAVE always felt slightly dodgy in cable cars but at least when they are travelling above snow I have the illusion that I will have a soft landing if something goes wrong. Not so with the cable car that links Dursey Island to the tip of the Beara Peninsula. I’ve gone through Dursey Sound by boat a number of times and it can be a creepy spot with the tides setting in sinister swirls on to a rock called The Lure.

The cable car system has recently been refurbished so I decided it was a good time to head for an overdue hike around the island. The crossing was a doddle but, if I’ve made you nervous, just don’t look down at the floor. You can see the water through the gaps which are there so that the car can be more easily washed after a cow has been carried across and you won’t have to share unless it’s very busy.

When you’ve landed head up to your right, following Beara Way markers at first but then striking out for the summit of Knocknaree (171m). Perched on its rocky summit you get a flavour of how satisfactory a hike it is going to be from a scenic point of view.

There is an irresistible mix of sea, mountains and islands visible across the mouth of the improbably named Kenmare River. It is a puzzle as to why this great inlet of the southwest is so named as all its fellows are rightly called bays. Topographia Hibernica (1795) gives the outer limits of “the river” as stretching from Bull Rock to the Skelligs. I’ve heard anecdotes that a landowner got it named as such so that he could claim the fishing rights but have come across no documentary evidence.

Continue along the spine of the island towards the trigonometrical station (252m). The going is easy under foot and remarkably dry for the most part due to the fact that the soil covering is a thin layer of shaley boulder clay that does not hold water on the slopes.

A 19th century Signal Tower stands proud on the summit plateau. The view is striking; stretching from the Blaskets to the Fasnet on the seaward side while to landward sits a layered backdrop of mountain and hills stretching from the Dingle to the Mizen peninsulas.

It would be wonderful to be here after dark on a summer’s night and watch the looms of the great lighthouses on their isolated rocks (Fasnet, Bull, Skellig and Tearaght) send out their luminous warnings of the dangers of this formidable coastline.

FROM THE SUMMIT you can drop down to the edge of the 120m cliffs at Foilanima and contour along their perimeter until it is time to turn up to spot height 97m. Offshore you can see the remains of the lighthouse on Calf Rock which was destroyed in a storm in 1881 and replaced with the present structure on Bull Rock in 1889. Below and near the shore you’ll see the structure which housed the temporary beacon while the new lighthouse was being constructed.

The return journey is along the island’s one road and it gives an insight into the human geography of an area that was once densely populated but now has a permanent population of around 10.

In contrast with other depopulated areas of the country, the field system on Dursey is remarkably well kept and there are no encroachments of bracken.

Going back in the cable car I promised myself that I wouldn’t finish this article with a pun on The Lure; so I won’t, but I will be back for my nocturnal commune with the lighthouses.

RouteDursey Island, Beara Peninsula

MapOrdnance Survey. Discovery Series. Sheet 84.

Start/finishThe cable car station on Dursey Sound. Grid Reference: 507419. See bearatourism.com for a timetable.

Get thereTake the R572 leading west out of Castletown Bearhaven.

TimeFive hours.

Distance15km.

Total ascent550m.

SuitabilityRoute is moderate. Map, rain gear and walking boots needed.

Food/accommodationNot a lot on the island but check out the self-catering cottage at formaneshouse.com.

Websitebearatourism.com.