Reenascreena Stone Circle

Explorer Tom This Chimney in Maulyregan reviews its visitors by checking if they’ve got flax or wool stains on their clothes before letting them near Reanascreena. It’s the only survivor of the old mills, showing off its fine stone craftsmanship and elegant design. Bow to it if you’re wearing clean trousers.

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 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 Benduff Castle is hiding in a wooded valley, pretending to be a guest house. It started as a tower for Catherine Mac Carthy Riabhach but got fancy later on. Check out the hills from there!

Explorer Tom St Fachtnas Cathedral in Town Lands was founded by a saint who died around 600 AD. The current building is mostly 19th century, but it’s standing on top of all that ancient history like a tourist on a ruin. Snap one for me if you see it!

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 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 Ownahincha Strand has had so many names that it’s given up trying to keep track of them all anymore. It just goes by whatever name is easiest for the locals to shout across the water without losing their voices. Ideal stop for a big stretch and a bigger yawn.

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 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.