Qualla: Beara Peninsula https://qualla.com/beara-peninsula en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:19 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/1/n/beara-peninsula-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Beara Peninsula https://qualla.com/beara-peninsula Beara Peninsula: Introduction https://qualla.com/beara-peninsula/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 4.0. One theory holds that the name Beara comes from a princess of Castile who married a warrior king of Ireland and was buried in a remote valley between two mountains. Another, more prosaic explanation links it to the Kerry dialect word bearrach -- rocks on the seashore against which the sea breaks with great force. Both stories fit. The Beara Peninsula, jutting into the Atlantic between Bantry Bay to the south and the Kenmare River to the north, is a place of force and romance in roughly equal measure. Two mountain ranges -- the Caha and the Slieve Miskish -- run down its spine. Its population peaked at 39,000 before the Great Famine. Fewer than 6,000 people live here now, on a landscape so rich in standing stones, dolmens, and stone circles that Bronze Age archaeology is practically a form of agriculture.

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Image: CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/1/n/beara-peninsula-wp/gc1n-beara-peninsula-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Beara Peninsula: Five Thousand Years in Stone https://qualla.com/beara-peninsula/ Photo credit Peter Ribbans, CC BY-SA 2.0. The first signs of human activity on Beara date to around 3000 BC: traces of Early Bronze Age settlements in a landscape that would have been largely forested. What remains is extraordinary in its density. Over 70 standing stones, 22 stone rows, 38 dolmens, wedge tombs, and stone...

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Image: Peter Ribbans | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/1/n/beara-peninsula-wp/gc1n-beara-peninsula-five-thousand-years-in-stone.mp3 0:06 2 full Beara Peninsula: The Last Stand of O'Sullivan Beare https://qualla.com/beara-peninsula/ Photo credit Trevor Rickard, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the modern period, Beara became the seat of the O'Sullivan Beare clan, one of the last points of native Irish resistance after the devastating Battle of Kinsale in 1601. When the Gaelic order collapsed, Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare led a desperate winter march from Beara to Leit...

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Image: Trevor Rickard | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/1/n/beara-peninsula-wp/gc1n-beara-peninsula-the-last-stand-of-osullivan-beare.mp3 0:06 3 full Beara Peninsula: The Ring Less Travelled https://qualla.com/beara-peninsula/ Photo credit Pedelecs, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Ring of Beara -- a 148-kilometre road circuit -- is Beara's answer to the far more famous Ring of Kerry, and its relative obscurity is part of its appeal. Starting in Kenmare, it crosses the Healy Pass through Adrigole, passes Castletownbere, winds through Allihies, and offer...

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Image: Pedelecs | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/1/n/beara-peninsula-wp/gc1n-beara-peninsula-the-ring-less-travelled.mp3 0:06 4 full Beara Peninsula: Old Oak and Ancient Bees https://qualla.com/beara-peninsula/ Photo credit Aidannnuigalway, CC BY-SA 4.0. Glengarriff Forest Nature Reserve covers 300 hectares of old sessile oak woodland, described as one of the finest examples of oceanic oak forest in Ireland. Non-native conifers and rhododendrons have been cleared in favour of native species, restoring a habitat that once stretche...

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Image: Aidannnuigalway | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/1/n/beara-peninsula-wp/gc1n-beara-peninsula-old-oak-and-ancient-bees.mp3 0:06 5 full