Knockanore
Cnoc an Óir

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 05 / 05

Cnoc an Óir · Co. Waterford

A west-Waterford parish that punches above its weight in cheese.

Knockanore is a parish more than a village. A church, a pub, a primary school, a few rows of houses around a junction, and a lot of dairy farms running down toward the Blackwater. If you have heard of it, you have heard of it because of the cheese — Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese, made on the Lonergan farm in Ballyneety since 1987, sold in delis from Cork to Dublin and, increasingly, beyond.

The name is Cnoc an Óir — hill of gold. The gold was the furze, the spiny yellow gorse that once covered the slope. The hill is still there, the furze less so, replaced in places by Sitka spruce plantations. There is a forestry loop walk if you want to stretch a leg, but the better view is from the road into the village: a long opening of the lower Blackwater, with the estuary winding out toward Youghal Bay.

Beyond that, there is not a lot to detain you. One pub, the Shamrock Inn. A small grocery. A new community café in the works. This is dairy country, working country, and the closest you get to a tourist economy is buying a wedge of the smoked cheddar at a farm shop in Lismore. Come for the drive, the view, and the cheese. Move on to Tallow, Lismore or Youghal for the night.

Population

~250

Coords

52.0667° N, 7.9000° W

01 / 05

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 cheese

Made on a farm in Ballyneety since 1987.

Eamonn and Patricia Lonergan have been turning the milk of their own Friesian herd into cheddar for almost forty years. The smoked one, oak-smoked on the farm, is the headliner.

Stories & lore → 02 The hill

"Hill of gold" — for the furze, not the metal.

Cnoc an Óir takes its name from the yellow furze that once covered the slope. There is a forestry loop that climbs through Sitka spruce and gives you a few honest glimpses of the Blackwater below.

Walks & outings → 03 The view

The Blackwater estuary, just down there.

Knockanore sits on a ridge above the lower Blackwater, between Youghal and Lismore. The estuary glints when the light is right. Tide-watching country.

Read on →

02 / 05

The pubs.

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

The Shamrock Inn

Local, quiet

Village pub

The pub in Knockanore. One bar, a few regulars, the GAA on the television in the corner. If you want a session and a crowd, you are in the wrong village; if you want a slow pint after a drive, you are in the right one.

03 / 05

Stories & lore.

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

Knockanore Farmhouse, est. 1987

The cheese on the hill

Eamonn Lonergan was a dairy farmer in Ballyneety who decided in the mid-1980s that selling milk to a co-op was no way to make a living. He and his wife Patricia learned to make cheddar, built a small dairy on the farm, and started in 1987 with the milk of their own Friesian herd. The smoked variety — oak from the Lismore woods, smoked in a hut on the farm — became the calling card. Their son Edward now runs much of the day-to-day. Awards have followed at the CÁIS Irish Cheese Awards and Blas na hÉireann. None of it is a marketing story. It is one farm, one herd, one shed.

The hill of gold

Cnoc an Óir

The name does not refer to buried treasure or a saint's gift. Cnoc an Óir means hill of gold, and the gold is the furze — gorse, whin — that once blazed yellow across the slope every spring. Forestry has changed the colour scheme; Sitka spruce is now the dominant cover on the upper hill. Older locals will tell you the slope used to glow.

Estuary country

The Blackwater below

Knockanore sits on the south side of the lower Blackwater, the river that flows out of Lismore and bends south at Cappoquin to find the sea at Youghal. From the higher fields here you look down on tidal mudflats, oak woods on the far bank, and the line of the river curling toward the estuary. The estuary is salmon water, swan water, and — if you know where to stand — heron and egret country. It is not signposted from the village. It is just there.

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Things to do outside.

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

Knockanore Loop A forestry loop on the hill behind the village, run by Coillte. Sitka spruce most of the way, with a couple of clearings that give you a glimpse of the Blackwater to the south. Easy underfoot. Not a view-walk so much as a leg-stretch — but a fine one if you have an hour to fill between the cheese-shop and the next stop.

5 km loopdistance

1–1.5 hourstime

Getting there.

By car

Youghal to Knockanore is about 15km — over the bridge into Waterford, then the R634 north. Tallow is 8km north on the same road. Lismore is 15km northeast. No through-traffic; you go to Knockanore on purpose.

By bus

No regular service through the village. The nearest scheduled buses are at Tallow (Bus Éireann routes from Lismore and Fermoy) and Youghal (Cork–Waterford services).