Castletown Bere

Castletownbere (Irish: Baile Chaisleáin Bhéarra) is a small town in County Cork, Province of Munster, Ireland. It is located on the southwest coast of Ireland, in West Cork, on Berehaven harbour near the entrance to Bantry Bay. It is also known as Castletown Berehaven. The name of the town comes from the no longer extant MacCarty Castle and not Dunboy Castle, which was home to the Puxley family. The Puxley Castle was burnt by the IRA in 1920. The conflict between the Gaelic former ruling family and newly enriched interlopers formed the basis for Daphne du Maurier's novel "Hungry Hill" named for the mountain of the same name which is the highest peak in the Caha range. The town has a population of around 875 in the 2002 census with a further 1,000 in the catchment area. Tourists swell this number during the summer season to a small degree. Since the 1960s a small amount of immigration to the area from Holland, Switzerland, Germany and England has increased the mix and more recently some economic migrants from eastern Europe have arrived. As in any fishing port there is a mix of incoming and outgoing transients and a local Spanish influence is well established. Overall the exodus from local families to North America and the UK is marked and up until recently the net population has declined. In Castletownbere itself many recent businesses and professionals in the area have been women. A new doctor, dentist and solicitor, several new shops and a ship chandler have been established by women who join more established women publicans and restaurateurs. The area has several established artists who sell internationally and a few galleries and craft outlets have opened in recent years. Dunboy Castle - two miles west of the town - was the seat of the O'Sullivan Beare who, together with other Gaelic lords and with Spanish aid, had gone into rebellion against the English Crown. During the Siege of Dunboy the castle was reduced by the forces of Elizabeth I in 1602. He then retreated with his acolytes to Leitrim. O'Sullivan Beare's stance was reverentially commemorated in 2002. A plaque in Irish and English exists on the ruins of his fortress saying it honoured those who had most nobly lain down their lives for their faith at that hallowed place. In 1796 Theobald Wolfe Tone and his confederates sailed into Bantry Bay in French men o' war. They anchored off Ahabeg - a townland five miles east of Castletownbere but the gales were so violent that they could not land. Wolfe Tone fulminated that he was so close to Ireland that he could almost have spat onto the shore - he reflected, "England has not had such an escape since the Armada" - perhaps an allusion to the fact that adverse winds frustrated England's mighty enemies on both occasions. For his efforts in preparing the local defenses against the French, Richard White, a local landowner, was created Earl of Bantry and Viscount Berehaven in 1816. In November 1918 a Royal Irish Constabulary officer from Castletownbere was patrolling at night towards Eyeries whilst another RIC man was patrolling towards Castletownbere. The Castletownbere man saw the figure approaching and panicked, firing - fatally wounding the other. The deep-water harbour was, up to the 19th century, much used by smugglers. From 1922 to 1938, Berehaven was one of three Treaty ports in the Irish Free State, UK sovereign bases maintained by the Royal Navy. The nearby golf course had been part of the Royal Naval base until 1938. The tennis court there used to be where huge oil tanks stood. The sentry boxes still exist at the entrance to the golf course and at a jetty on the golf course. A golf course existed on that site until 1938 to provide diversion for the sailors of the Royal Navy. Source: Wikipedia