West Cork

West Cork, from Kinsale to the Beara Peninsula and from the Atlantic to the Lee Valley, is no longer an impoverished, rural backwater; it is a popular holiday destination. It is remarkable for the many ways people make West Cork work for them: traditional farmers negotiating EU quotas; newcomers setting up restaurants; artists, writers, and dot.com millionaires starting ventures to allow them to live where they want. Others work to enhance this unique landscape: from environmental activists on Cool Mountain to the hard-working Shelswell-Whites of Bantry House, to wealthy castle restorers like Jeremy Irons, and innovative farmers on Beara.