Living the Sheep's Head Way

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The Stuffed Olive

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The Stuffed Olive Café Bantry

You’ll find great coffee and wonderful home-baking in The Stuffed Olive -a popular café in the heart of Bantry town

Patricia Messom and her daughters Sarah and Grace make the most of wonderful local ingredients and traditional home-baking skills in this welcoming spot. Fresh local produce, bursting with flavour, is combined with influences from across the world. The team here create tasty food and the warm atmosphere that is the signature of this popular café.

A great selection of freshly-made salads, soups, savoury tarts, and cakes are available throughout the day. Visitors often call in to buy treats for a picnic lunch, choosing from the fresh, handmade foods on offer as well as the speciality grocery items available here.

Holiday-makers enjoy choosing from the Stuffed Olive’s range of handmade ready-to-go meals. And The Stuffed Olive is a firm favourite with Bantry‘s locals too.

The Stuffed Olive launched its second cookbook in 2013, giving visitors a welcome chance to bring some of the flavours of West Cork home with them at the end of their stay.

 

Location:2a Bridge Street, Bantry, Co. Cork
Opening Hours:Open Monday - Saturday, 8:03 - 6pm. Open all year. Closed Sundays.
Tel:00 353 (0)27 55883
Email:[email protected]
Wheelchair accessible?Yes
Wi-Fi Available?Yes
Credit Cards:Yes
Special Dietary Requirements?Vegetarian, gluten-free, and 'no gluten containing ingredients' options available.
TripAdvisor Reviews: Yes
Facebook:Yes
Twitter:@TheStuffedOliv

Manning’s Emporium

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Manning's Emporium

An institution in the West Cork food scene, Manning’s Emporium is a must-visit destination for any foodie travelling along Ireland’s Atlantic coast.

Named as one of Ireland’s best 100 restaurants in The Sunday Times – February 2016

The café-delicatassen has been in the Manning family for over 70 years, evolving over that time from a post office and convenience store to what it is today: a gourmet shop renowned for its high quality local produce, fine wines and excellent service.

You’ll find a wide selection of Irish and continental farmhouse cheeses here. The owners Laura and Andrew share a passion for, and genuine knowledge of great food, and they’ll be happy to share with you suggestions about pairing their excellent selection of Irish artisan foods with the wide selection of wines on offer.

The local cheese board and good coffee are popular, and the sherry bar is a welcome new addition. Over the summer, Andrew and Laura host a range of themed food evenings in the courtyard outside the café, and these events are hugely popular with locals and visitors alike.

Manning’s also serves as a speciality food store, and so this is a great place to stop if you’re self-catering and looking for excellent wines, Irish tapas, cheeses and meats to serve at your own table.

Now you can even take a Manning’s Emporium food tour to meet some of West Cork’s best food producers with the Manning’s team.

Location:Ballylickey, Bantry, Co. Cork [N71 - Bantry to Glengarriff Road]
Opening Hours:Daily, 9am-7pm
Winter Hours:Closed Mondays
Tel:00 353 (0)27 50456
Email:[email protected]
Website:http://www.manningsemporium.ie
Wheelchair accessible?Access to undercover area, however no bathroom facilities.
Wi-Fi Available?Yes
Credit Cards:Yes
Special Dietary Requirements?Vegetarian, options available. Wide variety of gluten-free speciality items.
TripAdvisor Reviews: Yes
Facebook:Yes
Twitter:@emporiummanning

The Old Creamery

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The Old Creamery Kilcrohane

The Old Creamery in Kilcrohane is the newest place to eat along the Sheep’s Head Way!

Taste the fresh local food being dished up at The Old Creamery, and you’ll be getting a real flavour of life on the western edge of Europe. In this new family-run café and restaurant, sample wonderful local meats, fish and produce overlooking Dunmanus Bay. And you can even hire a bicycle to explore the peninsula and work off the effects of your indulgence!

The Old Creamery is the perfect place to eat if you’re exploring this unspoilt part of the world. It’s also building a reputation with walking groups whose members want to try the great local food produced along the Sheep’s Head peninsula.

A number of our local loop walks begin in Kilcrohane, so the Old Creamery makes the perfect place to reward yourself for your efforts.

The creamery building is also home to the Sheep’s Head Producers’ Market and Shop, so you’ll have the opportunity to meet local craftspeople, and bring home some of the lovely crafts and produce for which the area is building a great reputation.

You can even hire a bike here in case you want to work up an appetite before your lunch by taking a spin on the Sheep’s Head Way Cycle Route.
 
 

Location:Kilcrohane, The Sheep's Head peninsula, Co. Cork.
Opening Hours:10:30am - 4pm, Wed to Sunday. Dinners Friday & Saturday, 7-9.
Tel:00 353 (0)27 67139
Email:
Wheelchair accessible?Yes
Wi-Fi Available?
Credit Cards:
Special Dietary Requirements?Vegetarian, gluten-free, and 'no gluten containing ingredients' options available.
TripAdvisor Reviews:
Facebook:Yes
Twitter:

Cupán Tae

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Bernie's Cupán Tae

The Cupán Tae has been dubbed ‘the tea shop at the end of the world’, and it’s the last spot to catch a cup of tea before you walk on to the lighthouse at the end of the Sheep’s Head peninsula

We don’t meet anyone who’s visited the Sheep’s Head who hasn’t got a good word to say about the Cupán Tae. It’s an important part of every visit to the peninsula.

Bernie Tobin has been running a tea shop at Tooreen where the road ends on the Sheep’s Head peninsula for many years. The Cupán Tae began life as a prefab, and Bernie served hot drinks and homemade scones to grateful walkers. The tea shop Bernie runs there now still serves scones, legendary salmon sandwiches, and wonderful apple pie to people returning from the Lighthouse Loop Walk, or setting out on the return journey along the Sheep’s Head Way from Bantry.

At the Cupán Tae you’ll find walkers taking a well-earned rest, drivers enjoying the scenery of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, and cyclists, all gathered for a hot drop.

The views here at Tooreen are spectacular, and a walk out on the Lighthouse loop walk is highly-recommended.

Black Gate: Alice West Centre & Café

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Alice West Centre - Black Gate

The café, art gallery and butter house museum at the Black Gate in Kilcrohane celebrates the crafts, history, and walks of the Sheep’s Head peninsula

The old butter house building at the Black Gate dates from the 1890s. It was once a busy trading centre for the people from the north and west of the peninsula who were able to sell home-produced butter and eggs there.

In 1968, English-born artist Alice West bought and restored the building as a rural craft museum. For many years, the Black Gate museum outside Kilcrohane served as her home, but it was also open to the public. Alice was an enthusiastic patron of traditional music and a mentor to young people who Alice encouraged to learn craft skills in her basement workshop.

On her death, Alice West bequeathed the Black Gate to the community. Today, many of her paintings, and examples from her collection of rural antiquities are on display in the recently-renovated building.

The Sheep’s Head peninsula in West Cork is home to the Sheep’s Head Way walking route, spectacular scenery and unspoilt countryside. The Alice West Centre at the Black Gate is ideally situated as part of your walk or driving tour whilst also being a worthwhile destination in itself.

Call in for tea, coffee, snacks and Wi-Fi. With outstanding views across Dunmanus Bay, the Alice West Centre provides a welcoming venue to visitors and locals alike. Regular events include storytelling, traditional dancing and craft demonstrations.

Heron Gallery Café & Gardens

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Heron Gallery

Heron Gallery showcases the work of Annabel Langrish, as well as a unique and unusual collection of objet d’art, prints and original artwork.

Annabel’s compelling paintings focus on the diversity of the wildlife that surrounds us here on the Sheep’s Head peninsula. Heron gallery’s gardens – designed with an artist’s eye – are a great spot to enjoy the gorgeous, wholesome local food you’ll find in the lovely café.

The café serves Fairtrade organic coffee and teas, delicious scones and cakes, and, in summer, simple, wholesome lunches using locally-sourced organic produce. There is a lovely sunny terrace for those precious sunny days and free Wi-Fi can be accessed both inside and outside.

Heron Gallery Gardens

Heron Gallery Gardens Ahakista

Our garden is open from April to the end of August. Visitors to the gallery and café are welcome to wander around and, if we get advance notice, we can prepare a slow food picnic that you can bring with you.

The organic gardens are informal, with colourful flower beds radiating out from a pond and pergola. There is a wildlife pond and walk around a large pond surrounded by wildflower meadow and young woodland.

We have planted an orchard of Irish heritage apples and you can see our 2 polytunnels and raised vegetable beds. We try to grow all the salads and vegetables we use in the café.

A path takes you up to the natural ridge area where there is a great view down Dunmanus Bay.

All visitors’ donations go towards our garden project which is to construct Ireland’s first barefoot path. Slowly, we are developing our idea for a path where you take off your shoes and experience mindful walking and connection with the earth through walking slowly with bare feet on different surfaces.

Well-behaved dogs are welcome. Children must be accompanied.

While the Heron Gallery in Ahakista is closed in the winter, you can see and buy Annabel’s work online, and in her Schull, Kinsale and Kenmare stores.

Location:Ahakista, Co. Cork.
Take the right fork in Durrus towards Sheep's Head. After Arundel’s Bar, turn right. We are 300 metres up the hill on the left.
Opening Hours:The gallery is open throughout the year, seven days a week.
The garden is open every day 10.30am to 5.00pm from Easter to end of August.
Tel. 00 353 (0)27 67278
Email:
Website:http://herongallery.ie
Wheelchair accessible?No
TripAdvisor ReviewsYes
Special Dietary Requirements:Coeliac-friendly. Vegetarian options.
Google Maps:No
Facebook:Yes

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