Corran School

Explorer Tom Corran House in Corran South is a miller's house from around 1820, now looking a bit ruinous. The finely balanced façade and timber sash windows are still there. It’s a reminder of old prosperity. Take a pic of the porch on me!

Explorer Tom Rectory in Kilmacabea has been turned around so many times it’s lost its front door. The old entrance is now a bay window, which is just weird architecture. See if you can find the original way in.

Explorer Tom This Sitka Spruce in County Cork is stuck in a massive feud with the next tree over about who has the better view of the sheep. It’s been waving its branches at them for years like an angry old auntie. Bring your nan along; she’ll know exactly who’s right.

Explorer Tom Benduff Castle or Castle Salem in Benduff, County Cork is now part of a country house with square stacks on the gables. It’s like a castle wearing a fancy hat. Check out those stacks for me!

Explorer Tom Castle Salem in County Cork is actually called Benduff, which sounds like something you'd sneeze out during a storm. It sits in a wooded valley where a goat once ruled the place with an iron hoof. The goat retired to a field of clover and never looked back. Bring a coin for luck and keep it in your pocket.

Explorer Tom Drombeg Stone Circle has made a firm New Year's resolution to stop leaning so dramatically for the cameras. It claims seventeen stones is plenty of drama, even if two are missing and one looks like it gave up early. Look up, the best bit is always higher than you think.

Explorer Tom Fulacht fia in Drombeg By.) sits right next to the famous stone circle, with a horseshoe-shaped bank and a cooking pit that dates back to around 109 AD. It’s got a roasting pit too, so they were definitely feasting hard. Mind the overflow drainage channel, it looks slippery!

Explorer Tom You might expect Drombeg's stones to tell you exactly what happened here. They are keeping their mouths shut, the clever things. Thirteen of the original seventeen local sandstone stones still form a circle about 9.3 metres across. Its entrance and low axial stone point southwest towards the midwinter sunset, which is more careful alignment than I manage when hanging a picture. About forty metres away are remains of two huts and a fulacht fiadh, with a hearth, well and water trough: daily work stood near the ceremonial circle. Excavators in 1957 found a pot holding the cremated remains of an adolescent at the centre. Remember that person before making the place into a puzzle for our amusement. Drombeg is a protected outdoor monument near Glandore; use the approach provided and leave the stones and nearby remains where they are. I will keep my grand theories to myself and let you watch the light.

Explorer Tom Prison Cove inspired a bad poem once that rhymed 'cove' with 'love' in the most painful way possible imaginable. It still feels embarrassed about it whenever someone mentions the name, hiding behind its rocks to avoid the eye contact. Bring a flask of something warm and a story to swap.