Clogheen, An Cloichín, Co. Tipperary

An Cloichín · Co. Tipperary

The last village before the road tries to climb out of Tipperary.

Clogheen is a small village on the R668 at the foot of the Knockmealdown Mountains, about twenty kilometres south of Cahir. It has a square, a church, a few houses in close order, and one excellent reason to stop: the Vee road begins here. Drive south out of the village and within two kilometres the fields give way to heather and gorse, the road narrows, and the mountain begins in earnest.

The Vee itself - a V-shaped gap in the Knockmealdowns at around 300 metres - is where the R668 bends sharply before descending into Lismore and the Blackwater valley of County Waterford. Bay Lough, a corrie lake formed in the last ice age, sits in the fold of the mountains just below the road. The Sugarloaf Hill ridge rises above it. The whole pass takes twenty minutes to drive and most people do exactly that. It is worth considerably more.

The other reason to know Clogheen is Shanrahan, the old graveyard a short distance from the village where Father Nicholas Sheehy is buried. Sheehy was a Catholic priest hanged in Clonmel in 1766, convicted of murder on what his community considered - and most historians since have agreed - to be fabricated evidence. The real charge was his suspected involvement with the Whiteboys, the agrarian secret society that was terrorising landlords across Munster in the 1760s. His severed head was displayed on Clonmel gaol; his body was brought back to Shanrahan. People still visit. The grave is plain and the surrounding countryside is very quiet.

This is not a village that trades on its attractions. There is no heritage centre, no coach park, no audio trail. What there is: a road over a mountain that repays a slow morning, a graveyard that puts eighteenth-century Irish history in front of you without a screen, and a lake with a ghost story the locals have been telling since before the road existed. That is quite enough.

Population

~650

Walk score

Village in ten minutes; the mountain takes longer

Coords

52.2667° N, 8.0000° W

01 / 06

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 Vee

Drive south until the mountain argues back.

The R668 out of Clogheen rises into the Knockmealdown Mountains, bends in a V at the gap, and drops into Lismore in County Waterford. Bay Lough sits in the cleft below the road. On a clear day the Galtees are behind you and the Comeragh ridge is ahead. Go in late May for the rhododendrons.

Walks & outings → 02 Shanrahan Cemetery

A priest buried without his head.

Father Nicholas Sheehy was hanged at Clonmel in March 1766 for alleged Whiteboy activities. His body was brought home and buried here at Shanrahan. His grave has been a pilgrimage site ever since. Many in Tipperary believed, and believe still, that the charge was fabricated.

Stories & lore → 03 The Knockmealdowns

Small range, serious walking.

The mountains south of the village top out at Knockmealdown itself - 793m above sea level. The Galtees to the west are higher and wilder. Between the two ranges, the flat south Tipperary plain opens north like a map of itself.

Walks & outings →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

The hanged priest, 1766

Father Nicholas Sheehy

Nicholas Sheehy was parish priest of Clogheen from 1750. He was a Catholic clergyman at a time when Catholic clergy were barely tolerated, and he was outspoken - not unusual for the Munster priesthood, but dangerous. The Whiteboys, a secret agrarian movement, were active across south Tipperary in the 1760s, destroying enclosures and threatening land agents. Sheehy was accused by Protestant landowners of sheltering them and of the murder of an informer named John Bridge. He was tried twice - acquitted the first time, convicted the second, on the evidence of witnesses widely believed to have been suborned. He was hanged and beheaded at Clonmel on 15 March 1766. His body was buried at Shanrahan. His head went on a spike on the county gaol. The grave at Shanrahan has never stopped being visited. Most Tipperary people have always known what the trial was.

The ghost in the mountain lake

Bay Lough and Petticoat Loose

Bay Lough, the small corrie lake sitting in the fold of the Knockmealdowns just below the Vee road, has a ghost. She is called Petticoat Loose - a woman, the story says, who drank and danced and played cards with the devil and whose soul now haunts the lake. On calm nights the water is perfectly black. In a wind, the surface breaks into patterns the imagination does not need much help with. The story is old enough that nobody knows where it started, which is usually the sign of a story that has earned its keep.

A road that had to become a poem

The Vee

The R668 from Clogheen over the Knockmealdowns to Lismore is one of the oldest cross-mountain routes in Munster - monks and cattle drove it long before anyone thought to put a surface on it. The V-shape of the pass is a function of geology: two valleys cutting in from opposite sides of the ridge, almost meeting at the top. When the rhododendrons planted on the hillsides above Bay Lough are in flower in late May, the mountain is deep pink from a kilometre off. The rhododendrons are not native - they were introduced in the nineteenth century as ornamental plantings on the Lismore estate lands - and they have spread far beyond what anyone intended. Nobody is complaining about it in May.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

The Vee and Bay Lough loop Drive the R668 south from Clogheen to the Vee Gap car park (about 12 km). Walk the loop around Bay Lough - a corrie lake below Sugarloaf Hill. The path is rough in places. The view north across south Tipperary on a clear day is long and flat and serious. The cross above the road at the Vee is a landmark; stop there before descending toward Lismore.

6 km loopdistance

2-3 hourstime

Knockmealdown summit from the Vee From the Vee Gap, a ridge walk leads west to the summit of Knockmealdown at 793m. The terrain is open moorland - good visibility required. The views take in Waterford, Tipperary and Cork on a clear day. Not a scramble, but a proper hill walk with appropriate gear.

10 km returndistance

4-5 hourstime

Galteemore from Clogheen The Galtees are accessed from the south via Clogheen - a longer, less-frequented approach than from the Glen of Aherlow to the north. Galteemore at 917m is the highest inland mountain in Ireland. A serious day out. Go with a map and a weather forecast.

Various, from 10 kmdistance

5-7 hourstime

Shanrahan Cemetery walk A short road walk from the village to the old graveyard at Shanrahan where Father Sheehy is buried. Quiet land, old stones, long grass. The grave is marked. No signage required - ask in the village.

3 km return from villagedistance

45 minutestime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Vee in late May is the reason people make the detour. The rhododendrons on the Knockmealdown slopes go deep pink and hold for two to three weeks. Time it right and you drive through something you don't forget.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Vee carries more traffic in July and August but never the volume that crowds a mountain road. Long evenings make the pass worth driving twice. Bay Lough is still and dark and the walk around it is at its best.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Heather turning, slant light over the Knockmealdowns, and nobody on the road after four o'clock. The best season for the hill walks. The graveyard at Shanrahan has a particular quality in October.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The Vee road can close in snow and ice. A frost on the mountain is genuinely beautiful from below. The lake goes steely grey. Go prepared or come back in March.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Driving the Vee as a twenty-minute link between Cahir and Lismore

People do this and they miss the whole thing. Stop at the Gap. Walk to Bay Lough. Read the cross. The road is not a shortcut - it is the destination.

Arriving at Shanrahan expecting a heritage experience

There is no centre, no leaflet, no audio guide. There is a graveyard and a grave and the surrounding countryside. If that is not enough, it is not for you.

The Knockmealdown walk in cloud

Open moorland at 793m with no visibility. The summit offers nothing and the ridge route demands orientation. Wait for a clear morning.

Getting there.

By car

Cahir to Clogheen is about 20 km south on the R668 - 25 minutes. Clonmel is 25 km east via Burncourt, about 35 minutes. There is no through-traffic from the south in winter when the Vee road closes; check road conditions before attempting the pass in January or February.

By bus

Bus Éireann service 355 (Clonmel-Cahir-Tipperary Town) stops at or near Clogheen. Service is limited - check buseireann.ie for current timetables. Most visitors arrive by car.

By train

No station in Clogheen. Cahir station (Limerick-Waterford line) is 20 km north; Clonmel station is 25 km east. Either requires onward car or taxi.

By air

Cork Airport is about 1h 45m by car. Shannon is 1h 45m. Dublin is 2h 15m. Waterford Airport is 1h 30m - check whether scheduled services are operating.

Next on the tour

Co. Tipperary

Cahir

Twenty kilometres north on the R668. A castle on an island in the river, a John Nash cottage in the woods, and the place to base yourself for the Vee.

Co. Waterford

Lismore

The Vee road drops you here - a castle above the Blackwater, Robert Boyle's birthplace, and a town that has been important for so long it stopped proving it.

Co. Waterford

Cappoquin

Five minutes east of Lismore along the Blackwater. The road comes at the Vee from the other side - a gentle climb through Mount Melleray, steep and sharp at the top.

Co. Tipperary

Ballylooby

Six kilometres south on the Vee road, easy to miss and worth the slowing down.

Co. Tipperary

Ballyporeen

Six kilometres west under the Knockmealdowns, the village a president sailed an ocean to find.