Qualla: Castletownbere https://qualla.com/castletownbere en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Castletownbere https://qualla.com/castletownbere Castletownbere: Introduction https://qualla.com/castletownbere/ The trawlers come back in the half-light, low in the water, gulls wheeling above them like loose paper. Castletownbere lands more white fish than any other port in Ireland, and the rhythm of the town is still the rhythm of the boats - ice, diesel, nets, and the auction down on the pier before the rest of the country has finished its first cup of tea. Behind the working harbour rises Hungry Hill, the mountain Daphne du Maurier turned into a novel in 1943. In front of it, sheltered behind the long green shield of Bere Island, lies what mariners have long called the second-safest natural harbour in the world.

Read more: Castletownbere on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/castletownbere-wp/gc0v-castletownbere-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Castletownbere: The Shelter of Bere Island https://qualla.com/castletownbere/ Berehaven was a Royal Navy port for the better part of two centuries. In 1885 the warship HMS Polyphemus, an experimental torpedo ram, ran a simulated attack on a fleet anchored off the town - a test of new weaponry on the calm water that British admirals trusted as much as they ...

Read more: Castletownbere on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/castletownbere-wp/gc0v-castletownbere-the-shelter-of-bere-island.mp3 0:06 2 full Castletownbere: The Names on the Square https://qualla.com/castletownbere/ Wolfe Tone Square in the middle of town has more stories than its size suggests. The plaque to the Berehaven Battalion remembers the men and women who fought for the Irish Republic between 1916 and 1923, and the granite statue at the east end commemorates Timothy Harrington, the ...

Read more: Castletownbere on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/castletownbere-wp/gc0v-castletownbere-the-names-on-the-square.mp3 0:06 3 full Castletownbere: MacCarthy's Bar and a Doctor's War https://qualla.com/castletownbere/ On the square stands MacCarthy's, which Pete McCarthy put on the cover of his 1998 book and which the McCarthy family has kept open since 1860. Grocery in the front, pub at the back, and behind the counter on a wooden mount, the ceremonial sword presented to Air Commodore Aidan M...

Read more: Castletownbere on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/castletownbere-wp/gc0v-castletownbere-maccarthys-bar-and-a-doctors-war.mp3 0:06 4 full Castletownbere: Fishing and Smuggling and the Long View https://qualla.com/castletownbere/ The harbour was much used by smugglers up to the nineteenth century - any deep-water anchorage out of sight of revenue cutters was, in those years, an asset. Today, fishing remains the chief economic engine, employing around four-fifths of working people in the area as of the ear...

Read more: Castletownbere on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/castletownbere-wp/gc0v-castletownbere-fishing-and-smuggling-and-the-long-view.mp3 0:06 5 full Castletownbere: Hungry Hill and the Caha Range https://qualla.com/castletownbere/ Behind Castletownbere, the Caha Mountains roll up to Hungry Hill, the highest peak on the peninsula. Daphne du Maurier set her 1943 novel here, naming it for the mountain and tracing the rise and fall of a copper-mining dynasty across the page in lightly fictionalised parallel wi...

Read more: Castletownbere on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/castletownbere-wp/gc0v-castletownbere-hungry-hill-and-the-caha-range.mp3 0:06 6 full