"Heritage is not just about the past, but is evolving everyday"

Land and Seascape
Beara-Breifne Greenway route has a unique character which is drawn from its journey through a diversity of land and seascapes. There are dramatic displays of woodland, grassland, water and wetland, open sea, and coastal, bog land and mountain.

Human interaction with the land and sea are evident from the earliest of times up to the present, from archaeological remains to growing urban centres and farmland. Megalithic tombs, castles, ecclesiastical remains and vernacular buildings dot the Irish landscape. This wealth of archaeological heritage spread throughout the land and sea of Ireland. Just some of these include: megalithic tombs, cairns, barrows, standing stones, fulachta fiadh, (outdoor cooking places) underwater wrecks, coastal promontory forts and cliffs forts, crannoga, (lake dwellings), ringforts, souterrains, ecclesiastical remains, crosses, holy wells, childrens burial grounds, mottes, mills, bridges, limekilns, castles and tower houses.

Vernacular Houses
Vernacular house styles throughout the ages were adapted to the local environment and economy. The houses and outbuildings used available building materials and blended easily into the landscape. Local materials often used included stone or mud for walls, straw or rushes for thatch. Changing farm practices, industrialisation and urbanisation have weakened regional traditions and vernacular buildings are rapidly diminishing. However there are many fine examples along the Beara Breifne Greenways route.

Mansions and Castles in the last four hundred years.
The Big House and its associated estate have been an integral part of the Irish landscape for almost four hundred years. The Elizabethian conquest of Ireland coupled with the defeat of the old Gaelic Society resulted in major changes in the ownership of the land of Ireland. A new culture was created which saw the emergence of the big house and the landlord classes. This new land owning class is difficult to define as it contained a mixture of race such as the Old English, New English, Old Irish, Welsh and Scots, who came from various religious backgrounds and socio-economic classes.

Practically every Big House dating from before the middle of the seventeenth century was a castle of some kind, on the O'Sullivan Beara route examples of these semi-fortified houses include; Portumna Castle, Co. Galway (1618), and Kanturk, Co. Cork (1609). Smaller mansions on the route include Puxleys Mansion, Co. Cork (1730), Bantry House, Co. Cork and Castlebaldwin Manor House, Co. Sligo. Other examples throughout Ireland range from the great Palladian mansions of Castletown in Co. Kildare (commissioned in 1728), Westport House, Co. Mayo and Hazlewood, Co. Sligo to the smaller solidly built houses such as Cahircalla, Ennis, Co. Clare and Waterville House, Co. Kerry. Many of the Big Houses are composed of a mixture of styles or layers which either reflect their owner's status in society or the architectural trends which were considered fashionable for that particular period.

Another important facet of the Big House and its estate was the wealth of its associated structures which the landlord built for his tenants, estate business or for pleasure. These structures included the grand entrances, gate lodges, farm buildings, estate houses, gazebos, follies, eyecatchers, triumphal arches, sporting lodges, planned woodlands, ornamental and landscaped gardens and lakes. In instances where the Big Houses has vanished many of the afore mentioned structures have survived.

The landlord classes were the main agents of the improvement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and were responsible for the layout and development of towns and villages, as well as agriculture and infrastructural development.

The late nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century heralded great changes for the Big House and the landed classes. Many estates were sold to the Irish Land Commission and the land was then carved out among the tenantry. Some landlords decided to remain in their ancestral homes while others decided to leave the country. Some of the Big Houses were burnt during the Troubles (1919-23), others were simply abandoned and left to fall into decay, while others continued to function as family homes. Today, some of the surviving Big Houses have been transformed to luxury hotels, nursing homes or leisure centre. It is also pleasing to see that many of the ruined Big Houses are being brought back to life. After all the Big House and its associated estate were areas of outstanding architectural, historical, landscape, archaeological and heritage importance.

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