MOPTOG

Glengarriff is quite possibly one of the prettiest villages in Ireland and is surrounded by ocean, lakes, forests and mountains. It’s old world charm, lush greenery and stunning water vistas make it a walkers dream.

Our day trip took us on the loop walk of Seal Harbour to Bocarnagh. The walk brought us along over 3km of stunning seascape. We made our way through the greenery as the sea kept us company to our right side. We made our way to a secluded cove where we basked on rocks like the local seals and ate our lunch in the sun.

The beautiful woodland reserve in Glengarriff was next on our agenda to see this ancient oak forest. One of the last remaining tracts of oak forest is found here and it is a sessile, oceanic forest which makes it even more special. Oak trees support up to 280 different species of insects so are incredibly important to the biodiversity and environmental health of the area.

Much of Glengarriff has been overrun with the encroachment of rhododendron plants which were brought in as ornamental plants in the 1800’s. They have spread at a prodigious rate, smothering out other native plants and wreaking havoc on the landscape. The National Parks and Wildlife Service are eradicating large tracts of this plant with varied success.

We ended our day with a well deserved feed then crossed the road to check out the Blue Pool. Despite visiting Glengarriff on countless occasions I somehow missed out on this gem. It epitomises the effect of halcyon days as the evening sun blazed down on us as we melted into the grass. Children laughed and jumped off the jetty into the dark waters as swans glided passed, eyeing them coolly. I felt like I was in a movie scene of incomparable perfection.