We left the farm house and drove through Bantry, which had no available accommodations due to 2 weddings in town. We had a reservation at a Bed and Breakfast that I think was called the Drum Loc House. We couldn’t get by the smell as we were going up the driveway. I honestly thought we were driving into the dump. We were told by a local B&B owner in Bantry that Glengarriff was nice and had several B&B’s On our way out of town we passed the The Ballylickey House, which is were we remained for the next two nights. Locacted just outside the town of Bantry, in County Cork, the Ballylickey house is a lovely estate home, built about 300 years ago as a shooting lodge by Lord Kenmare. The Graves family took over around 1940 and it has recently been totally restored and splendidly refurbished to its period. The house has a number of elegant suites with fine views over the grounds but we chose to stay in the garden cottages, which overlook the pool. Ah, to relax in such a gorgous place and sit by the pool eating pizza and drinking fine wine.
On Sunday we stopped in Glengarriff for gas and tea then spent the day touring the Ring of Beara on the bikes, driving all the way to Garnish Point. Lunch at O’Sullivans in Eyeries Village was fun, then through the Healy Pass back to Bantry. The cliffs, narrow roads, passages, roaming livestock, sharp turns with steep slopes made the adventure more breathtaking in more ways than one. The roads were initially carved out for horse and buggy so they cover only the most magnificent coastline and mountain passes. I read up a bit before choosing the Ring of Beara over the famous Ring of Kerry and I am certainly glad I did. I hear the later tends to be a bit crowded in the summer.
