Visitor centre at stunning Mizen Head gets the works in time for summer 2024

As summer comes to an end, Jackie Keogh takes a trip to one of the region’s most beautiful peninsulas, and its top attraction, which is about to get a revamp in time for next year’s season

THERE is a reason why more than 60,000 people visit Mizen Head each year.

Local tourism guides believe it is the natural environment – the dramatic cliffs meeting the sea at Ireland’s most southwesterly point – that brings day-trippers in their droves.

But there are actually four pillars to the overall success of the region. The pillars are: Goleen, Crookhaven, Barleycove, and the Mizen Head Visitors Centre.

The community of Goleen comes very well provisioned with a well-stocked shop, café, and pubs, as well as its own E-Commerce hub for people needing to keep a hand in at the office while on holidays.

Nearby, Crookhaven, has a winter population of less than 50 – a figure that swells to an estimated 700 during the summertime.

Crookhaven has always been a destination of choice for people looking to flee the city. Its access to the water, excellent bars, restaurants, and some of the most spectacular coastline ensure its continued popularity.

Barleycove, too, has long been a destination of choice because there isn’t a beach to rival its expanse and its beauty. In the last 20 years, Barleycove has been developed judiciously with new apartments and villas.  This has paved the way for a unique community collective that plays an active role in maintaining the beach and providing facilities such as a new toilet and shower.

Local homeowners, residents in the apartments, villas, and the nearby caravan park, as well as day-trippers are all very well served by the Barleycove Beach Hotel. During the height of the season, it becomes a focal point, a busy social hub. Locally, people appreciate the fact that their pristine Blue Flag beach has a Council-backed lifeguard service.

Nevertheless, the community is actively calling on the local authority to put a year-round pontoon in place and to increase parking facilities for the huge influx of visitors at the peak of the season.

But it was the vision of a voluntary, community group, the Mizen Tourism Cooperative Society, in establishing the Mizen Head Visitor Centre, that has ensured day-trippers get the best, most immersive experience of Ireland’s most southwesterly point.

The cooperative – spearheaded by Sue Hill, Fr. John Cotter, Willie Buckley, Kathleen Downey, and Dr. Brian O’Connell – were the powerhouse behind the first opening of the bridge to the public in October 1993. Prior to the tourism cooperative obtaining a lease from the Commissioners of Irish Lights, public access to the signal station site had been prohibited for almost 80 years.

The original committee of the centre.

The vision of the cooperative ensured they had the backing of the community, the local authority, Leader, Cork Kerry Tourism, and sponsorship from West Cork Bottling Company.

The fact that the visitors’ centre is situated on a rocky promontory 150ft above the Atlantic and is linked to the mainland at Ireland’s most southwesterly point by a 172ft suspension bridge makes it unique. Mizen Head’s suspension bridge and Baltimore’s Beacon were, for example, selected to feature in one of promotions.

Tour guide David Gibbs with (from left) Tory islanders Seamus Rodgers and Liam Rodgers, Florence Newman (tour guide), Bridget Byrne from Co Wexford and David Felanfrom Tipperary.

The commercial, promoted widely at home and abroad, ran as a trailer before the eagerly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VIII featuring scenes filmed at the nearby Brow Head.

The making of the movie was a fantastic boost for the local economy as Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, and Daisy Ridley, arrived in Ireland on a chartered jet with 270 stars and crew on board back in 2016. They rented a house on nearby Brow Head, and the crew became regulars in Crookhaven’s popular pubs while they filmed the stunning scenes.

The Mizen Head visitor centre itself comprises a modern coffee shop, a gift shop, and a wonderful interactive exhibition giving the history of the signal station, a description of the huge variety of marine life in the area, and the great feat of engineering behind the signal station and adjacent bridge’s construction. The café, gift shop, and washrooms are all free of entry to the public, but in order to continue through the audio-visual displays and onwards to the signal station, people pay a fee.

Tour guide Florence Newman says people are drawn to the dramatic landscape, where the cliffs meet the sea.

The centre is currently undergoing a major expansion project that will see the restaurant and the outdoor play area significantly expanded.

Some local people have expressed disappointment that the work is being carried out at the height of the tourism season, but everyone is looking forward to its completion before the end of the year.

‘My overview is that the construction here has been going on for quite a while,’ one resident, Denis O’Kelly told The Southern Star. ‘That may have to do with the whole building supply situation. At the moment it is hard to get materials, but it is a pity that the foreign tourists come to such a beautiful site and they are greeted by this to begin with.

‘In 2011, when the famous bridge to the lighthouse was rebuilt at a cost of €2.5m,’ Denis said, ‘it was a fantastic investment because it is getting more than 60,000 visitors on an annual basis.’

He believes the investment in expanding the services at the visitor centre will have long-term positive benefits for the entire region too. He did, however, say it is unfortunate that the play area was not available this season.

‘It was ripped up for the development, and the superb old propeller that was always a big attraction for tourists taking pictures was thrown in the ditch,’ he said.

‘Unfortunately, they seem to have missed the season, but I have no doubt that at the end of the day it will be all worth the hassle.’

The construction work did not seem to hinder most people’s enjoyment of the amenity during our visit.

Lauren Sheehan and Jasmine Kelly working at the ticket desk at the visitor centre.

Mizen Head’s popularity as a destination at land’s end has captured the imagination of countless cycling clubs who make it their finish line for challenging, charitable events. Stephen O’Sullivan, the ex-lighthouse keeper, is now the manager of the hugely popular centre, he and the centre’s enthusiastic tour guides show people around the centre itself, as well as the former keepers’ house.

The living quarters, including the kitchen and the bedroom are as they once were so visitors get a real sense of what it must have been like to live and work there.

As tourism experiences go, it is interactive and is of such jaw-dropping beauty that it stays fresh in the minds of visitors for a very long time.