Valentia Harbour County Kerry Republic of Ireland

The weather on Monday 2 June was due to be pretty dire with strong westerly winds, meaning that beating west out of the Kenmare River would have been very hard work. Plus, I had an Zoom meeting at 1330, right in the middle of the sailing day, so we had intended to stay put at Sneem, which meant that we would likely be there for a couple more days as the next westerly gale rolled through. But when we awoke on Monday morning it was to a flat calm. The forecast was for the wind to pick up to westerly force 5-6 by lunchtime and then gale force in the evening. It was too good a chance to miss so we got the dinghy on deck and rolled away and headed straight out, aiming to get to Valentia, 35nm away, before the gale reached us. Within an hour we had 10knots dead on the nose. It was only logical to continue motoring to get to the mouth of the Kenmare River as fast as possible to stay ahead of the wind.

Lamb’s Head

After 2 hours, at about 1040hrs, we were able to sail through the islands off Lamb’s Head and, with a reef in the main, full staysail and 4 rolls in the genoa, were making our way northwest at all speed. Over the next 2 hours the wind increased, as expected, as did the sea state.

Bolus Head off to our right…

… and the Skelligs off to our left

We passed Bolus Head and got a good view of the Skelligs. Our original intention, a few days previously, had been to route via the Skelligs to get a closer look but any ideas of that detour had been quashed by the increasing wind and imminent gale. Off Bray Head, the southwest tip of Valentia, we dropped the second reef in the main, rolled away the genoa and staysail and wore round, rather than gybing, to head northeast up the north shore of the island, unrolling the staysail again as we went to help maintain speed.

The narrow entrance to Valentia Harbour between the white lighthouse and Beginish Island beyond
(Photo taken a couple of days later) 

The entrance to Valentia Harbour is remarkably narrow, though all the books state that it is ‘easy’. It is well lit by a directional light and it is easy to see and to follow the leading line, but Beginish Island is remarkably close to port on the entry and it’s not nice to find pot bobbers on the leading line in nearly the narrowest part of the channel! Once through the entrance all became calm and we got the sails down and prepared Blue Velvet for the next stage, mooring alongside the southern breakwater pontoon of the (unfinished) Knightstown marina.

Blue Velvet finally alongside after a bit of a faff with lines

It wasn’t tidy. Two men (fishermen?) came to take our lines, which would have been very helpful had they shortened and cleated off the lines immediately but they didn’t, so we ended up a long way from the pontoon on 2 lines. With now near gale force winds from the port beam and the current flowing under the pontoon pushing us off, powering against the lines to bring Blue Velvet in was nigh on impossible. We eventually managed to winch her in. Not our best mooring up but we were secure and importantly before the wind increased to above 40knots.

The gale continued to blow from the south (not the forecast southwest) and increased further, so much so that the car ferry from Knightstown to the mainland stopped running early. However, at about 2200hrs the wind veered southwesterly and dropped a bit, which made life a lot more comfortable.

By Tuesday morning 3 June the wind had dropped off significantly. So much for the gales and strong winds continuing for several days! We took a stroll out into Knightstown, a small town (but the largest town on Valentia) to explore. Knightstown is one of the few town-planned villages in Ireland. In 1830 Maurice Fitzgerald, the 18^th Knight of Kerry, commissioned Scottish engineer, Alexander Nimmo, to design a new village but it wasn’t actually built until the early 1840s when the local slate quarry was expanded and some of the works were moved to Knightstown. The slate quarry is still in operation, having been closed and reopened a few times (though, crucially for the villagers, having remained open through the famine) but the slate works in Knightstown were closed about a century ago.

Valentia Heritage Centre

We visited the Valentia Heritage Centre (once Knightstown’s National School) and learnt a lot about the island and its way of life in the past and also about the history of the first transatlantic communications cables that ran from Valentia to Newfoundland.

We spent a good couple of hours in the small museum and then walked a circuit around the village, inadvertently also taking in many of the points on the transatlantic cable ‘tour’ as we did so.

Ciara with her brand new OCC Port Officer Flag

In the evening the newly appointed OCC Port Officer for Valentia, Ciara Cahill came aboard for drinks and a meet-up. Reg was delighted to welcome her as the Club’s newest PO and we had a lovely couple of hours finding out more about Valentia and about Ciara’s sailing background and plans for the future. She also gave us some great tips on places to visit, Bray Head being one of them.

On Wednesday 4 June, with rucksacks packed for a full day out, we walked up the hill to Valentia Camping and Caravanning to hire bikes from them to cycle to Bray Head, as a Google search had shown no public transport on Valentia. Disappointingly, all the bikes were away being serviced in preparation for the start of the summer season, doubtless in July. So, Bray Head, about 6 miles away was a non-starter. Where to go? Ciara had talked about Geokaun (pronounced Yo-kawn), the highest point on Valentia (266m/844ft) so, since it was only 5 km/3 miles away, we decided to go there.

The walk, along single-track road was delightful, very wooded and green initially and then through farmland.

The Skelligs (top) The Peat Bog (bottom)

Fogher Cliffs

We were rather surprised to find that there was an entry charge for pedestrians as well as for cars to go up Geokaun but paid up our €4pp and took the road and then the footpath to the viewing point to see the Fogher Cliffs. The cliffs are hugely impressive and from the viewpoint here there are great views across ‘the bog’ where the island women used to cut and dry peat for fires and for building. Then we continued up to the loop walk, just below the summit, from which we had stunning views across the whole of Valentia and then, of course, we ‘did’ the summit, which was draughty!

From the loop walk we’d had a good view over the slate quarry and could also see Valentia MRCC, as well as Valentia Lighthouse, which had been to starboard as we had entered Valentia Harbour. Our mapping app showed that there were footpaths and tracks that we could take down to the lighthouse, so we did.

Views from the Valentia Lighthouse. (Top) Geokaun and below it the slate quarry (Bottom) Killelan Mountain
on the mainland in the distance, Beginish Island to the right and the entrance to Valentia Harbour we
sailed through in the foreground

When we got there we found that we could do a tour of the site, which also allowed us to go up the somewhat stumpy lighthouse to view the harbour entrance from a different angle to that which we’d seen it previously. All great fun.  And then we followed our mapping app back along what it said were public footpaths but, it turns out, may not have been. Glanleam House (previously the home on Valentia of the Knights of Kerry one of whom had had sub-tropical gardens designed in the grounds) has, in the recent past, been open to the public. We entered via a stile into the back of the gardens but by the time that we reached the house, we were pretty sure that the gardens were no longer open to the public, though a public right of way may still exist through the grounds. We left as sharpish as we could, at the entrance (our exit) passing a shed, which looked like it was previously a ticket office, and on which was the sign ‘CLOSED please do not enter’. Ooops!

Glanleam Bay

The coastal road took us back to Knightstown and on the way past Glanleam Bay. By the time we got back to Blue Velvet we’d walked about 16 km/10 miles, climbed about 1000ft and got loads and loads of photos – a good day out!

Anchored in Glanleam Bay. Glanleam House is the higher house surrounded by trees in the top picture. 
 Valentia Lighthouse and the entrance to the harbour is visible to the right

With plans to head on to the Aran Islands (Inishmore, specifically) the next day, shortly after we got back to Blue Velvet we slipped our lines and motored around to Glanleam Bay, under the house through whose gardens we’d just walked. A Cruising Association report on the anchorage says that there is kelp, but we found good holding on sand. There was still something of a chop being refracted through Valentia Harbour entrance though, which made it a little rolly at times but not bad. However, the advantage was that we were a lot closer to the harbour entrance and, with many of the ‘post departure checks’ and kit stowage all complete, the next day’s early start would be much more relaxed.

Valentia Harbour, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland