The Rabach Way: ‘I’ve explored Beara many times, but had no idea of this secret place’

An off-radar adventure in Co Kerry leads to a deserted village, a 19th-century murder mystery, and some of the southwest’s most stunning scenery

A view from the abandoned village in Cumeengeera. Photo: Pól Ó Conghaile

Pól Ó Conghaile

There is a lonely valley on the Beara Peninsula where a tough but short walk will suck you out of the 21st century and, cell by cell, feel like it is reassembling you as a time-travelling wayfarer.

Hidden between hulking ridges near the Cork and Kerry border, it takes you to a deserted village set beneath a fierce crease in the Caha Mountains, and a clear, trickling stream that is central to the story of a centuries-old murder-mystery.