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The people of the Mizen peninsula like to recall the 29th of September 1985, when Ireland's former Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughy and his friends were plucked from the ocean by the lighthouse keepers. It was their "Dallas" without the attendant tragedy - the one occasion in living memory when the world spotlight was briefly focused on the peninsula.
The former premier had set out that morning from Inishvickillane, his island home off the Kerry coast. As his motorcruiser "Taurima" rounded Mizen Head in dense fog, she went aground on rocks, and holed below the waterline and began to ship water. The keepers on the lighthouse picked up the stricken vessel's mayday call and immediately summoned the lifeboat, meanwhile mounting their own rescue attempt. Ropes were used in an attempt to reach the sinking boat, which by now had entered a cutting fifty meters below the station. Before the life boat arrived, the Taurima had joined the many other wrecks which dot the seabed around the rocky headland. Mr. Haughy and his companions had succeeded in launching her inflatable life raft from which they were eventually rescued.
On the fateful day when the former prime minister, his son and their three friends had their unfortunate rocky encounter, the Mizen was still a fully manned station where experienced eyes scanned the ocean and finely attuned ears monitored the radio. One cannot help wondering if the station not been manned, would the Haughy party have survived. There is a much published photograph showing the party with glasses raised in a cozy bar in Ballydehob. The caption does not say so, but let us hope they were toasting the "Keepers of Mizen Head."
Lighthouses were being automated all around the Irish coast in the eighties and early nineties. Indeed Mizen was one of the last. Tusker, off the Wexford coast was automated at the same time. The economic implications of such closures to the small communities closest to them were considerable. Mizen was a particular case in that it is the most southwesterly point in Ireland. Such territorial extremities have a unique fascination and have drawn people since time immemorial.
Sue Hill, the proprietor of the Heron's Cove, a long established restaurant and guest house close to Mizen, understood this fascination and pondered the notion of a small museum and visitor centre to be housed in what had been the lighthouse keepers living quarters. The centre would celebrate the history of Mizen and lighthouses, generally, since their heyday in the nineteenth century. Irish lighthouse history, of course, extends back much further. Hook Head Lighthouse in Co. Wexford, Ireland's oldest, was manned by monks as early as 452 AD, while the Sisters of the Convent of St. Anne were keepers of the light at Youghal for about 350 years, up to 1542. There was a wonderful tale to tell and where better to tell it than in a place which until very recently had itself been a fully manned signal station and lighthouse.
The Commissioners of Irish Lights, the august body which has long overseen the design, construction and maintenance of lighthouses and light ships, were initially bemused by her idea. Their quite proper respect for their venerable institution did not readily allow for the opening up of their recently automated lighthouse to the public. Happily, they were persuaded and a community group was formed which was soon to become the Mizen Tourism Cooperative Society Ltd., with Sue Hill as its Development Officer. Business sponsorship and private investment, combined with EU grant aid, allowed work on preparing the building for its new role to progress quickly. Since its opening in 1993, the centre has attracted ever increasing numbers of visitors. It is economically viable and gives much needed local employment. A craft shop, cafe, rest rooms and a video for people who are unable to reach the lighthouse will be added as funds become available. In charge is Stephen O'Sullivan, who was one of the keepers at Mizen and uniquely qualified for his new role. Stephen personally conducts many of the tours.
The crossing of the concrete bridge which connects Cloghane Island to the mainland is where the excitement begins. Its lofty setting fifty meters above the surging water combined with the stiff breeze and the towering rock formation on every side provides a suitable atmospheric overture to the further climb to the lighthouse. From the former keepers kitchen with its large windows, giving views of the surrounding cliffs, visitors can enjoy the great variety of seabirds. The cliffs are home to Fulmar, Gannet Puffin, Guillemot, Razorbill, Shearwater, Storm Pteral as well as the more familiar varieties of Gull. A series of startlingly realistic cave interiors with appropriate wild life and sound effects have been created by local artist Jules Thomas in the buildings, corridors and spare spaces. The caves represent life in the inaccessible parts of the cliffs down at sea level.
People have long been fascinated by the near monastic and sometimes dangerous life of the lighthouse keeper. They bring this curiosity to the Mizen and although it is only a "headland station" as distinct from the isolated "island station" or the even more remote "tower station" like its famous neighbor, the Fastnet, visitors manage to capture a real sense of what life must have been like for the early keepers. Every available space has been pressed into service to display the stations collection of historic photographs, drawings, artifacts and marine memorabilia related to Mizen and other lighthouses around Ireland's rugged coast.
The exhibition draws on the epic tale of the Fastnet's construction in Cornwall and its transport, block by block to the Fastnet Rock, to enhance the visitors understanding of the enormity of such construction projects and the brilliance of George Halpin and other celebrated engineers who masterminded them. It is interesting to reflect how advances in satellite navigation, which allow an individual to determine his position on the planet to within a few meters, using an instrument no larger than a mobile phone, may eventually push such leviathan, already automated, into further obsolescence.
Now that the locked gate which once frustrated travellers seeking to cross the bridge to Cloghane Island and thus reach the true Head of Mizen, is openthe stream of visitors will inevitably grow. There is a great deal else to see and enjoy along the way. Take Ballydehob with its charming fishing harbor, and a selection of hotels and bars, including a new one owned by famous potter Stephen Pearce from nearby Shannagarry. There is artistic Schull with its galleries and inviting restaurants. Sue Hill's Heron's Cove at Goleen, where the incoming tide all but reaches dining room windows. There are easy walks in laneways lined with fuchsia or on pristine sand at Barlycove, but most of all there is the ever present wild Atlantic and the towering cliffs that rein it in.
This story appeared in the
March 1999 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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