THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS
I always preferred hotels when travelling with standards expected, anonymity assured. The privacy cocooned me, the comfort of strangers never beckoned. All changed when I found Gallan Mor.
A four roomed boutique refuge, elevated beyond a mere bed & breakfast by its distinguishing owners Noel & Lorna. Gallan Mor sits on the edge of Dunmanus Bay in West Cork. Their very first welcome feels like returning to meet old friends.
The bay dresses itself in various adornments – a cooling wrap of blue grey mist, the golden dazzle of summer sunlight. In parts its field have the patina of old tweed coats, in others it is rich and verdant. Jewelled water, the colour of lapus lazuli, washes over olive coloured seaweed and silver grey stone. The ever changing vista adds to the enchantment of the house.
A standing stone, or Gallan Mor, sits easily in the garden. Its soft edges testify to a history stretching over 3500 years.
”…light dances through huge windows casually drawing the outside in and the inside out. There is a sense of place, it might be heaven. “
In the elegant common areas light dances through huge windows casually drawing the outside in and the inside out. There is a sense of place, it might be heaven.
In the bedrooms morning light barely seeps through the blinds. Draw them up to expose flora and fauna that lift the spirit. A young hare scampers under the rhubarb, summer flowers and native gorse burst with colour and beckon you out.
The food is hearty, wholesome, lipsmackingly tasty and rightly served with pride and joy. It might be offered quietly on a winter’s night or as the centrepiece for an impromptu spring gathering that drifts into the late hours and a lavender twilight.
Go out from Bandon or Bantry. Take the Sheep’s Head drive beyond Durrus towards Akahista and discover the true meaning of an Irish welcome.