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MYRTLEVILLE

CO. CORK · IE

Myrtleville
Baile an Chuainín, Co. Cork

The Cork Harbour
STOP 08 / 08

Baile an Chuainín · Co. Cork

Cork city's nearest beach, a clifftop pub, and a shop. You come for an afternoon, not a week.

Myrtleville is the beach Cork city goes to when it cannot be bothered driving far. It sits just west of the mouth of Cork Harbour, three kilometres south of Crosshaven, on the open-sea side but tucked into a cove so the harbour entrance takes the worst of the swell. The result is a sandy strand that stays usable when the open coast is unswimmable, and a tide that deepens quickly so you do not have to wade for ten minutes to get wet.

The village itself is tiny - a shop, a pub, a scatter of houses, and not much you could call a centre. County planning held the place to one-storey-plus-attic houses from the 1990s on, which is why it has not turned into a suburb of Carrigaline. The big landmark, the clifftop restaurant Bunnyconnellan that ran above the beach for nearly fifty years, closed in 2022. Its sister premises, The Lodge Bar & Kitchen up the hill, is the one place to eat and drink now, and it is open most of the year.

Do not come expecting a town. Come for a swim, a walk along the coast road to Fountainstown, a pint with a sea view, and a long afternoon. In summer the car-lined approach road fills with Cork families and the strand gets loud. In winter it empties out to dog-walkers and the hardy all-year swimmers, and on Christmas morning it fills again for one cold, generous hour.

For anything bigger - restaurants, beds, a night out - Crosshaven is three kilometres north and Cork city is half an hour away. Myrtleville is a stop, not a base. Used as a stop, on a fine day, with the water calm and the harbour mouth busy with shipping, it is hard to beat for the drive it takes to get there.

Population

A few hundred (no separate census figure)

Coords

51.7942° N, 8.2947° W

01 / 08

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The beach

A sheltered sandy cove three kilometres south of Crosshaven.

Tucked just west of the mouth of Cork Harbour, so the worst of the Celtic Sea swell breaks before it reaches you. Swimmers use it all year. It is the closest proper strand to Cork city, which is the whole point of the place.

Walks & swims → 02 The village

One shop, one pub, and houses built to stay one storey high.

The Irish is Baile an Chuainín, 'town of the small harbour'. County planning since the 1990s held new houses to a single storey plus attic to protect the look of the place. It worked. Myrtleville stayed small.

Stories & lore → 03 The swim

A Christmas-morning charity swim that draws hundreds.

The Danny Crowley memorial swim goes in off the strand at half ten on Christmas Day, in memory of a Carrigaline teenager, raising money for the Mercy children's leukaemia unit. Four hundred-odd swimmers in ten-degree water, then mulled wine on the sand.

Stories & lore →

02 / 08

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Lodge Bar & Kitchen

The one local, open most of the year

Bar and kitchen, Ballinluska

Up the hill from the beach in Ballinluska. Since Bunnyconnellan closed in 2022 this is the village's pub and dining room both. Bar and kitchen, a menu that runs from European to Asian-influenced plates, open six days most weeks - afternoons into the evening midweek, from lunchtime at weekends. Phone ahead at the weekend; it is the only game in the village and the locals know it.

03 / 08

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Lodge Bar & Kitchen	Bar and kitchen, Ballinluska	€€	The single place to eat in Myrtleville. Kitchen does lunch and dinner, the cooking ranges wider than you would expect for a beach village - the Asian-leaning plates are the thing people mention. Kitchen tends to wind down around eight, earlier on a Sunday. After this, you are driving to Crosshaven or into Cork.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

A beach village, not a planned one

Baile an Chuainín, the small harbour

Myrtleville never grew up around a single founding - it grew along the townlands of Ballinluska and Myrtleville, west of the harbour mouth, off the back of estate houses and, later, sea-bathing. The 18th and 19th-century records tie Myrtleville House to the Daunt family, one of the local landed names. The modern village is largely a 20th-century thing: holiday cottages, then permanent homes, kept deliberately low and small by county planning from the 1990s that capped new houses at one storey plus attic. That restraint is why the place still reads as a village and not a dormitory of Carrigaline.

1824 cottage to landmark restaurant, closed 2022

Bunnyconnellan, the cliff house

For decades the name everyone in Cork knew at Myrtleville was Bunnyconnellan - 'Bunny's' - the bar and restaurant built out from an 1824 cottage on the cliff above the beach, with terraces stepped down toward the water and a view straight out the harbour mouth. It ran as a restaurant, bar and at times a hotel for the best part of fifty years and was the standard end to a swim. It closed in 2022, weathering, as the owners put it, an economic storm. The building still hangs over the strand; the welcome moved up the hill to its sister house, The Lodge.

The Danny Crowley memorial, half ten, December 25th

The Christmas Day swim

Every Christmas morning the strand fills for the Danny Crowley memorial swim, held in memory of a Carrigaline teenager who died of leukaemia in 2013. It starts at 10.30, raises money for the Mercy Hospital children's leukaemia unit, and in a good year pulls more than four hundred swimmers into water hovering around ten degrees, with tea, coffee and mulled wine handed out to anyone who comes back up the sand. It is the one day Myrtleville is busier in winter than in summer, and it tells you more about the place than the beach itself does.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Myrtleville Strand South-facing, reasonably clean sand, water that deepens fast. Swimmers use it year round. Watch the rocks on the right-hand side where a wave can pull you onto them, and mind that it is not Blue Flag - improved over the years but the harbour brings what the harbour brings. Lifeguard in high summer only. Park along the approach road; there is no official car park.

Short sandy covedistance

However long you havetime

Coast road to Fountainstown Walk west along the cliff path and coast road to Fountainstown Beach, the next cove over. Open views across the outer harbour the whole way. The simplest good walk here and the one most worth doing. Fountainstown has its own strand at the far end.

2 km one waydistance

25 minutestime

Templebreedy and the coast toward Crosshaven North toward Crosshaven, the lanes pass Templebreedy - a non-denominational graveyard with stones back to 1711, on a site that held a medieval church and, before that, a monastery. The ruined St Matthew's tower nearby was left standing as a navigation mark for ships entering the harbour. Crosshaven, the yacht-club village, is at the far end.

3 km northdistance

45 minutestime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The water is still cold and the crowds have not arrived. Good for the coast walk to Fountainstown, brisk for a swim. The all-year swimmers keep going regardless.

◐ Mind yourself

Summer

Jun-Aug

Beach weather. Cork families pile in, the approach road fills with parked cars, the strand gets loud and the water gets used. Lifeguard on in high season. Come early on a fine Saturday or not at all for parking.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Still swimmable, far quieter, the harbour-mouth light at its best. Probably the nicest window for a walk and a pint without the summer scrum.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The village empties to dog-walkers and hardy swimmers. The Lodge keeps going. Then Christmas morning the strand fills for the charity swim - the one day winter beats summer here.

◐ Mind yourself

07 / 08

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a hotel or B&B in the village

There is no accommodation in Myrtleville itself. Crosshaven is three kilometres north with options, and Cork city is half an hour away. This is a day-trip beach, not a base.

Heading for Bunnyconnellan

The landmark clifftop restaurant closed in 2022 after nearly fifty years. The building is still there above the beach, but it is shut. The Lodge up the hill is its replacement.

Treating the water as Blue Flag

It is not, and never quite was. Quality has improved but it sits inside a working harbour. Fine for a dip on a good day; keep small children off the rocks on the right where the waves can grab you.

Getting there.

By car

Cork city to Myrtleville is about half an hour, south through Carrigaline and Crosshaven on the R611 then R612 and local roads, following signs for the beach. Park along the approach road - locals advise parking up the hill toward Pine Lodge rather than down by the Fountainstown turn, which is awkward to exit.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 220X (Ovens to Crosshaven via Carrigaline) stops at Myrtleville on its run to and from Cork city. Weekdays mainly. Check the timetable, as service is lighter than the main city routes, and a car is far easier.