I'm just back from the Beara Peninsula in South West Ireland.
Beara is one of my favourite places in the world. We have visited here with a friend, Arran Henderson, from Dublin for almost 20 years. This time I was struck on this visit by just how many parallels there are with my home-land of Eryri (Snowdonia) - and also of NW Scotland - from the geology to economics to history and culture. There is also the remarkable history of the bungalow here, which, as I understand it, started as a simple ploy by an architecture firm to simplify the ordering of a bungalow, by making a set number of designs (bunglalow no 1, no 2 etc). And ended up in so many being built to (understandably) replace old houses symbolising the trauma of a colonial past, that the architects were horrified (I even heard driven to emigrate/suicide/give up practice).
Here is a photo-essay which (I hope!) captures some of our experience of the spirit of the place...
