Travel review: Isle be back... my glamping break in West Cork paradise

Legend says that a King of Munster, Owen Mór, was so besotted by his bride, a Spanish princess called Beara, that he named an island in his west Cork kingdom in her honour.

That must have been the 2nd century equivalent of getting a tattoo of your wife’s name on your arm.

Having visited Bere Island for the first time at the start of the current heatwave, if the Princess was anything like her namesake island, then she must have been bewitching, wild, and beautiful.

Measuring 10km by 3km, the island is a small but perfectly formed jewel amidst the craggy, beguiling beauty of West Cork.

I visited Bere Island as the guest of Wild Atlantic Glamping with my family, and enjoyed three days discovering the sights and scenery that make this a must-visit place just off the beaten track for anyone visiting the region.

You enter and exit the isle via one of the two ferries on the mainland in Castletownbere, which have space for a handful of vehicles and make several trips a day in the summer.

We disembarked and headed for our accommodation on the north-east of the island.

Catriona Hanley, of Crosshaven, founded Wild Atlantic Glamping in 2021 in the place where her father was from. Her passion for the island shines through in the love she has lavished on the campsite.

There are six glamping pods, each with a private toilet and sink. These are heated and available year-round. There are also four bell tents, available from May to August.

We stayed in the pods - and the heating was strictly not necessary, although I imagine they would be a cosy spot in the depths of winter when the weather on Bere Island can really bare its teeth

There is a communal canteen on site at Wild Atlantic Glamping, with barbecues, and communal toilets and shower facilities too.

We availed of the barbie facilities on our first night, having brought over food and supplies from the mainland.

We were delighted to receive a guest pack on our arrival - packets of Joe’s Farm Crisps, Bere Island Pure Irish Honey, a jar of hot chocolate, and marshmallows.

This underlined Catriona’s ethos of combining support for local produce and business with sustainability, a thread that runs through her entire site, with its wild grasses fluttering in the gentle summer breeze.

We dined out on the other night of our stay in The Bere Island Hotel. This, and the village shop and café in the main village of Rerrin, are the only places serving food on the isle, while the sole pub, O’Sullivan’s - locally known as Dessie’s Bar - in Rerrin operates varying hours.

One thing you learn quite quickly about Bere Island is that you have to go there prepared - that means stocking up on supplies and not being over-reliant on places that may be closed or very busy on different days.

We had two days to explore the island in all its glory, and there was no shortage of places to visit

A hurling puck away from the glamping site, there is a stone pier which is popular with swimmers when the tide is up.

Rerrin was a robust half-hour walk away, and the village contains many echoes of its past as a military post for the British empire, with its strategic position overlooking Bantry Bay.

We also visited The Bere Island Heritage & Information centre, which is a treasure trove of history, telling the story of the island and its people down the centuries.

It opened on the site of the island’s former school in 2010 and explains how the links to the British military forged much of the island’s identity, while also providing fascinating information on the fishing industry that has been its residents’ mainstay for centuries.

A standing stone right in the centre of Bere Island suggests that humans have inhabited the place for millennia.

Legend has it that a giant on the mainland threw the stone at the Old Hag of Beara, but it missed her and landed on Bere Island instead. Pretty poor throw really.

At the heritage centre, Oscar Daly provided us with a rich background on the island’s past and present, and its plans for the future.

Oscar and some of the island’s inhabitants have a deep passion for their home place, and are facing similar challenges to us on the mainland - housing shortages made worse by the impact of airb&b, fluctuating school rolls, allied with global threats to the fishing industry.

As a microcosm of Ireland as a whole, you hope Bere Island can surmount some of these challenges, and perhaps teach us how we can do it on a greater scale.

As well as learning about the island, we had plenty of opportunity to revel in its charms.

We drove out down bumpy tracks to Scairt Beach, a few minutes from Rerrin, in an area which is sometimes used as a firing range for the army (don’t worry, they give fair warning to visitors!)

This beautiful inlet must be one of the finest beaches in the country - and on a warm day, it had a deep blue tropical hue.

The sea here was crystal clear and refreshingly cold, and the sand ideal for balming out.

We also enjoyed a long but rewarding hike - a 5km round trip trekking to the lighthouse on Bere, across uneven and sometimes challenging terrain. It was worth it all for the stunning views as we edged away to the far side of the island to the open sea, and the views from the lighthouse are to die for.

It’s worth pointing out that while we visited during a heatwave, the island tends to be a few degrees cooler than other parts of the county and country, and sea breezes and the occasional low cloud also provided relief from the blazing sun.

If our summers are going to get hotter, then that’s another reason to see the place.

I’ll be back for sure.