At the tip of the Beara Peninsula, the fenced collars of Allihies' 19th-century copper mine shafts still dot a wild Atlantic hillside above Ballydonegan beach. The village museum and its café are the natural base for exploring them.
This waymarked route starts at the museum and takes in six of the seven mine sites around Allihies, travelling by beach, cliffs, fields and mountain. It runs 11 km over 2-3 hours and walkers rate it easy, though some sections are pram friendly and others are not. Trail maps are available at the museum counter.
The Man Engine house at the Mountain Mine stands out in the grey mountain above the village and is the only such engine ever installed in Ireland. From the top of the hill you get views of Ballydonegan Bay to the north and Bantry Bay to the south.
The mines were worked from 1812 by Cornish and local miners sunk shafts with hand drills and gunpowder, and the fenced-in openings or collars of those shafts are a common feature in the Allihies landscape today. The trail passes powder houses, dressing floors and man-made reservoirs along the way.
Housed in the Methodist church built in 1845 for the Cornish miners, the museum tells the story of copper mining here from the Bronze Age to the 1960s, with artifacts, models, original cost books and a model of the Man Engine. There is a shop, an art gallery upstairs and multilingual audio guides.
On the same premises as the museum, the café serves coffee, cake, locally sourced seafood lunches and wine, with indoor and outdoor seating and a full lunch menu to eat in or take out. Behind the building a sensory garden looks out over the Allihies countryside and Ballydonegan Beach.
The brightly coloured village blossoms in summer, with three local pubs and sandy Ballydonegan beach a short walk below. The Michael Dwyer festival takes place each June and the Allihies family festival each August.
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