Around The Villages of Butlerstown and Timoleague

The local towns are Bandon,  Timoleague, Courtmacsherry and Clonakilty.  However the most famous town in the neighbourhood is Kinsale (Cionn Saile: tide head), which is 18 miles.      Its fame was established years ago as a quaint seaside town with delicious restaurants and carefully preserved 18th-century buildings.  In the 1960's Heidi McNeice, the wife of the poet, opened the first restaurant here and it rapidly became a magnet for the world's glitterati.  In the last decade it has become unquestionably the gourmet capital of Ireland; with music and cinema stars bidding up local real estate values, it is also one of the most expensive.  Kinsale is a National Tidy Towns Winner too—but for all that it’s still a very agreeable place. Once, it was an important naval port. In 1601 the Irish joined forces with Spain against the English, and the Spanish fleet anchored here before the disastrous battle of Kinsale, which led to the ‘Flight of the Earls’ and put an end to the rebellion against Elizabeth I and her reconquest of Ireland.  St Multose Church is the oldest building in town, parts of it dating from the 13th century. Inside are the old town stocks. The churchyard has several interesting 16th-century gravestones which in spring are covered in whitebells and bluebells, and in summer red valerian grows out of crevices in every wall. Desmond Castle, a tower house from the 1500s, was once use as a custom house, and later as a prison for captured American sailors in the War of Independence; it now houses an ‘International Museum of Wine’. There is also an interesting museum in the old courthouse and market building, with material associated with the life of the town and port through the centuries.

To the south, on the R604, near Ballinspittle, is a ring-fort from about ad 600. There are some superb sandy beaches at the resort of Garrettstown, a little further south on the R604, and splendid cliff scenery at the   Old Head of Kinsale at the end of the road (to see it, and the old lighthouse on the point, you’ll need to pay an admission fee to the golf course that occupies most of Old Head). Round the Old Head, just 7 miles outside the attractive village of Summercove, the remains of a 15th-century De Courcy castle overlook the blue- and white-flecked sea. Charles Fort in Summercove was built in the 1600s (in the time of Charles II), as a military strong point. It is shaped like a star and you can wander round its rather damp nooks and crannies. The severe 18th and19th-century houses inside were used as barracks.

The market town of Bandon,   is Morth East of Butlerstown  on the N71. Bandon was founded by Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork, in 1608. Over the gate of the then-walled town it is said that there were once the words, ‘Turk, Jew or atheist may enter here, but not a papist.’ A Catholic wit responded, ‘He who wrote this wrote it well, the same is written on the gates of hell.’ The River Bandon and its tributaries make for good fishing and walking, and, if you want to explore, Kilbrittain, Timoleague and Courtmacsherry Bay are unspoilt. Courtmacsherry, a peaceful place with a lovely setting on the bay, is a sea-angling centre.

Clonakilty, a comfortable old shoe of a village that seems a world away from Kinsale, was the birthplace of Michael Collins. It has a Model Railway Village that recreates the world of the long-closed West Cork Railway, and a small stone circle at Templebrian, north of the village off the N71, as well as a fine broad beach at Incheydoney—this one is becoming a bit overdeveloped, but if you’re looking for beach solitude there are plenty of others in the coves and inlets around Clonakilty. A little further west, Rosscarbery is a charming old-fashioned village. It had a famous school of learning founded by St Fachtna in the 6th century, and a medieval Benedictine monastery. The very attractive 17th-century Church of Ireland church is on the old cathedral site. Inland to the west, in the valley of the little River Roury, stands the ruin of Coppinger’s Court, a ruined Elizabethan or Jacobean mansion, burnt out in 1641, which gives shelter to cows in winter. It stands to the left, off an unclassified road between Leap and Rosscarbery. From Roury Bridge, a country road (R507) winds to Dromberg Stone Circle, from where you can see across pastures and cornfields to the sea. It is dated between the 2nd century bc and 2nd century ad. A cremated body was discovered in the centre of the circle when it was excavated. The beaches of Owenahincha and, to the east, the Longstrand have wonderful sand. Union Hall and Glandore are two pretty resort villages on a narrow inlet 5 miles (8km) west of Rosscarbery, whose harbours are filled with highly painted boats.

Watersports include scuba diving, boating, etc.  Horseriding, golfing (at The Old Head championship course as well as at the informal Lissellen Course) and skeet shooting are all available locally.