Qualla: Sheep's Head Lighthouse https://qualla.com/sheep-s-head-lighthouse en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/sheep-s-head-lighthouse-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sheep's Head Lighthouse https://qualla.com/sheep-s-head-lighthouse Sheep's Head Lighthouse: Introduction https://qualla.com/sheep-s-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Karie Kuiper, CC BY-SA 4.0. The lighthouse at the western tip of Sheep's Head is not very large. It is a squat white round tower on a square white plinth, set into the heather and outcrop of the headland with the Atlantic working away at the cliff below it. From a distance it looks like the kind of small modern lighthouse you would assume had always been there. It hasn't. It is younger than the moon landings - built in 1968 for a single specific purpose: to guide the largest oil tankers in the world into Bantry Bay.

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Image: Karie Kuiper | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/sheep-s-head-lighthouse-wp/gc0v-sheeps-head-lighthouse-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sheep's Head Lighthouse: Built for Giants https://qualla.com/sheep-s-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit KevForkan, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the late 1960s, the Gulf Oil corporation chose Whiddy Island, deep in Bantry Bay, as the site for an oil terminal capable of receiving very large crude carriers. The supertankers of the era could not safely make the approach with the existing pattern of lights. Two new lightho...

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Image: KevForkan | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/sheep-s-head-lighthouse-wp/gc0v-sheeps-head-lighthouse-built-for-giants.mp3 0:06 2 full Sheep's Head Lighthouse: Two Hundred and Fifty Helicopter Trips https://qualla.com/sheep-s-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Podstawko, CC0. The site is hard to reach. The end of the Sheep's Head peninsula is a narrow ridge of rock falling steeply to the sea on three sides, with no road, no track that could carry a heavy lorry, and no easy approach by sea. The builders solved the problem by flying everything in. Aroun...

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Image: Podstawko | CC0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/sheep-s-head-lighthouse-wp/gc0v-sheeps-head-lighthouse-two-hundred-and-fifty-helicopter-trips.mp3 0:06 3 full Sheep's Head Lighthouse: What the Light Does https://qualla.com/sheep-s-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Fred Antoine, CC BY-SA 3.0. The design borrows heavily from the Achillbeg lighthouse off the Mayo coast: a tall white round tower on a square service building, both painted to be visible against the heather and rock. In its white sector the light has been measured at fifty-one thousand candles - enough to b...

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Image: Fred Antoine | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/sheep-s-head-lighthouse-wp/gc0v-sheeps-head-lighthouse-what-the-light-does.mp3 0:06 4 full Sheep's Head Lighthouse: The Walk Out https://qualla.com/sheep-s-head-lighthouse/ Photo credit Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0. Visitors reach the lighthouse on foot. The Lighthouse Loop runs out from the carpark at Tooreen along the spine of the headland, following the line of the old ESB poles, with the sea on both sides. The walk takes about two hours return for those who linger at the cliff edges. On ...

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Image: Richard Webb | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/v/sheep-s-head-lighthouse-wp/gc0v-sheeps-head-lighthouse-the-walk-out.mp3 0:06 5 full