Eyeries – 5 Healy Pass

I went alone one morning, while we were staying in Eyeries, to photograph the Healy Pass, below. The drive to Lauragh Bridge, where I turned onto the R574 from our cottage, was more than 20 kilometres. I have no idea how far it was to reach the view below, but I should guess at least 5 kilometres.

The pass, reaching 298 metres (977 feet) above mean sea level, is on the boundary between County Cork and County Kerry – though the section in my photograph above is wholly within County Cork. I regret that I can’t display this image as a full-page spread because of the sidebar.

The road travels, between two of the highest mountains in the Caha mountain range – following the R574 between Lauragh in County Kerry and Adrigole in County Cork. It’s steep and windy with some real hairpin bends along several kilometres. Given the mountain micro-climate you will understand that traversing it can be dangerous.

The road from Lauragh to the spectacular winding section passes through some magnificent scenery such as Glanmore Lake (above).

I took this image to illustrate some of the spectacular scenery that I drove through from Lauragh Bridge.

An elevated roadside shrine at the top of the Healy Pass.

I include this shot of a section of the pass because the panorama used as this post’s featured image is shrunken to fit the page width and does not do justice to the majesty of the view.