Cloghane, An Clochán, Co. Kerry

An Clochán · Co. Kerry

A village of 150 at the foot of the highest mountain in Ireland outside the Reeks.

Cloghane is a hundred and fifty people on the north shore of the Dingle Peninsula, with a mountain over its shoulder that is the highest in Ireland outside the MacGillycuddy's Reeks. The village runs to a pub, an inn, a church, a graveyard and a pier on the estuary. You can walk it in five minutes. You can stand in the middle of it on a winter Tuesday and hear nothing but a tractor and the wind off Brandon Bay.

The mountain is the reason. Cnoc Bhréanainn - Mount Brandon - is the holy mountain of west Kerry, and Cloghane is where the pilgrim path goes up. From Faha just outside the village a route climbs the eastern face past corrie lakes and a paternoster of glacial steps to Brendan’s Oratory at the summit. The western side is a different mountain entirely - open ridges, the Saint’s Road from Ventry running out at Ballybrack a kilometre up the road, harder ground if you don’t know it. Pilgrims have been doing one or the other for fifteen hundred years, and probably for a thousand years before that, when the festival up there was Lughnasadh and the god was older.

Don’t come for nightlife. Come for a long beach you will mostly have to yourself, a mountain that will probably be in cloud, a Pattern Day on the last Sunday in July if your timing is right, and the strange quiet of a Gaeltacht parish where the road runs out at the sea and the next thing west is the Blasket Islands.

Population

~150

Walk score

Village in five minutes, mountain in five hours

Founded

Gaeltacht parish, added to Corca Dhuibhne in 1974

Coords

52.2303° N, 10.1958° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

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

01 Mount Brandon

952 metres of holy mountain.

Eighth highest in Ireland, named for Brendan the Navigator. The highest outside the Reeks. The pilgrim path goes up the eastern side from Faha, just outside the village. The western approach is a serious scramble. Cloud comes in fast.

Walks & outings → 02 Brandon Bay

Thirteen kilometres of flat sand.

The beach runs from Fahamore to Brandon village, an unbroken curve of Atlantic strand on the north side of the peninsula. Coaches do not come here. The wind gets the run of it.

Stories & lore → 03 Pattern Day

Last Sunday in July, every year since.

Domhnach Crom Dubh - the old Lughnasadh harvest Sunday with a Christian saint laid over it. Mass, music, the village in O’Connor’s afterwards. Nobody pretends the festival started with the church.

Stories & lore →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

O’Connor’s Pub

Walkers, locals, late

Village pub & guesthouse

The pub at the heart of Cloghane. Run by the O’Connor family, rooms upstairs, food on through the day. The walking crowd ends up here after Brandon and the locals never left. Music on summer weekends and on Pattern Day, when the whole parish is in.

The Brandon Inn

Steady local, food-led

Pub & restaurant

The other pub in the village. Older crowd in the early evening, walkers and visitors later. Kitchen leans on Brandon Bay seafood when the boats are in. A pint and a fire after a wet day on the mountain is what the place is for.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
O’Connor’s	Pub kitchen	€€	Soup, sandwiches, chowder, a roast at the weekend. Nothing claiming to be more than it is. After a day on Brandon you will not want it to be.
The Brandon Inn	Pub & restaurant	€€	Bigger menu than O’Connor’s, evening service most of the year. Local seafood when it can get it. Book on a Saturday in summer.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
O’Connor’s Guesthouse	Rooms over the pub	A handful of rooms upstairs at the pub. Walking distance to dinner, breakfast and bed counts as the same building. Book ahead in summer and for Pattern Day weekend.
Brandon House Hotel	Hotel, Brandon village	Up the road in Brandon village, three kilometres on from Cloghane. The only proper hotel on this stretch of the peninsula. Bar, restaurant, sea view. The default if O’Connor’s rooms are full.
Cloghane B&Bs	Farmhouses & guesthouses	A scatter of B&Bs in and around the village - Mount Brandon House, An Riasc and a few farmhouses on the road toward Brandon Point. Booking direct beats the platforms here. Most close from November to Easter.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

Up the east face of the holy mountain

The pilgrim path from Faha

From the Faha Grotto a kilometre outside Cloghane, a path climbs the eastern flank of Mount Brandon past a string of corrie lakes - paternoster lakes, the glaciologists call them, beads on a thread - and up onto the ridge. The summit holds Séipéilín Bréanainn, the remains of a stone oratory that pilgrims have been climbing to since the early Christian centuries. It is nine kilometres return and four to five hours if the weather behaves. It often does not. People come off this mountain wet, lost or both several times a year. Bring a map you can read in cloud.

The Saint’s Road ends here

Cosán na Naomh

The medieval pilgrim road from Ventry on the south coast of the peninsula runs eighteen kilometres north over the spine of Corca Dhuibhne and finishes at Ballybrack, a kilometre up the road from Cloghane. Pilgrims walked it for centuries, said a prayer at Saint Brendan’s Oratory in Ballybrack, then turned and went up the western face of the mountain. The waymarked national trail stops at the grotto now - the route to the summit was deemed too risky to mark. The pilgrims who finish it properly still keep going.

Pattern Day, last Sunday in July

Domhnach Crom Dubh

The Cloghane and Brandon Pattern is held on the last Sunday in July. Mass at the parish church, music in O’Connor’s afterwards, the whole parish out for it. The Christian name for the day is Domhnach Crom Dubh, and the saint involved is meant to be Brendan, but the festival is older than the church. Lughnasadh - the harvest Sunday of the god Lugh - was held on the same weekend across Ireland for two thousand years. People climbed Brandon then and they climb it now and the calendar has not really moved.

Standing at the corner of the peninsula

The view from Brandon Point

Drive the road out past Brandon village to where it ends at Brandon Point. The cliffs there look west across the mouth of Brandon Bay to the tip of the peninsula at Slea Head, and on a clear day the Blasket Islands sit on the horizon like a low cloudbank that refuses to move. It is one of the few places on the north shore where you see the whole arc of the bay and the mountain at once. There is a small car park and a path. Bring a coat. The wind here has come a long way.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Mount Brandon from Faha The eastern pilgrim ascent. Up past the corrie lakes, onto the ridge, up to the oratory at the summit. Don’t do it in cloud unless you know the ground. Start from the Faha Grotto car park, a kilometre from the village.

9 km returndistance

4-5 hourstime

Brandon Bay strand The full length of the bay from Fahamore to Brandon village is rideable on a hard sand at low tide. Most people do an hour out and an hour back. Footprints, sand, gulls, the mountain over your right shoulder. Nothing else.

Up to 13 kmdistance

However long you havetime

Brandon Point cliffs Park where the road ends past Brandon village and walk out to the headland. View west to the Blaskets and Slea Head, north to the open Atlantic. Short, exposed, worth the drive.

3 km returndistance

1 hourtime

Cosán na Naomh - last stage If you want to walk the Saint’s Road but not the whole eighteen kilometres, pick it up in the hills above Anascaul or Glenahoo and walk the last few hours into Ballybrack. Ends at Saint Brendan’s Oratory by the grotto.

Variabledistance

Half daytime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Apr-May

The mountain is dry-ish and the days are long enough. Lambs on the hill, gorse out, Brandon Bay empty. The best window for the climb.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Pattern is the last Sunday of July - the one weekend the village is properly busy. Otherwise summer here is quieter than the south side of the peninsula by a long way.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Big skies, storms rolling in, the mountain in and out of cloud. The walking is at its best if you have the gear and the patience.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Mar

Half the B&Bs shut. The mountain is for experienced winter walkers only - short days, low cloud, ice at altitude. The bay is still there and still empty.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Mount Brandon in cloud

Visibility goes to ten metres on the summit ridge and people get lost up there every year. If the top is in, walk the bay instead and try again tomorrow.

The western scramble without map skills

The open western slopes look gentler than the Faha route and they are not. Featureless ground, no waymarks above Ballybrack, weather that turns inside an hour. Take it on with a guide or with proper navigation, or take the Faha path.

Connor Pass in a coach or a campervan

The pass from Dingle is single-track in long sections with sheer drops. The signs at both ends ban large vehicles. They mean it. Come in around by Castlegregory if you are not in a small car.

Looking for nightlife

There are two pubs. After eleven on a winter Tuesday there is one pub. After midnight there is bed. That is the deal.

Getting there.

By car

From Castlegregory, the R560 along the north coast - 25 minutes around the bay. From Dingle, the Connor Pass in fine weather is 30 minutes and one of the best mountain drives in the country. From Tralee, allow an hour by Castlegregory.

By bus

Local Link 275A runs Tralee-Castlegregory-Cloghane-Dingle a few times a day. Slow, scenic, the driver knows the road.

By train

No train. Nearest station is Tralee, then bus or taxi.

By air

Kerry Airport (KIR) is 1 hour 15 minutes by car. Shannon is 2.5 hours.