‘A shelter from the growling Atlantic’: our stay in lighthouse keeper’s cottage on Ireland’s west coast

County Clare’s dramatic shoreline is the backdrop to Loop Head Lighthouse and its two holiday cottages. Binoculars for sea viewing included – but not wifi

We cross a narrow strip of land under vast skies and follow a slim road. It cuts a straight line through the heart of County Clare’s only peninsula – a jagged spearhead-shaped piece of land that dangles downward, like a tail, right into the Atlantic. The landscape tapers as the mouth of the River Shannon appears to the south, and the ocean to the north, until we reach the tip of the spear at what seems to be the very edge of the world; and there it stands, defiant and elevated on an outcrop – Loop Head Lighthouse.

From some point in childhood, my introverted self romanticised the role of a lightkeeper. Maybe it was Robert Eggers’ psychological thriller The Lighthouse (2019) that wreaked havoc with that elysium, but a lightkeeper’s cottage rental offered a flavour of the experience without the carnage.

Topics

Scot gets dream job as lighthouse keeper on remote Australian island
Top stories - BBC News - November 7
Labor strikes shut down operations at Canada's container ports from East to West Coast, with U.S. trade left in limbo
Business - CNBC - November 4
Ireland shifts diversity dial to stay with the pace
World - Financial Times - 5 days ago
Crews working to contain wildfires on East and West Coasts
Top stories - CBS News - November 11
Atmospheric River Shifts South: What to Expect from the Forecast
Top stories - The New York Times - 2 days ago
Stormy weather slams several portions of West Coast
Top stories - CBS News - 2 days ago
2 dead in Washington state as bomb cyclone hammers West Coast
Top stories - ABC News - 2 days ago
Atmospheric River Brings Rain, Snow and Power Outages to California and West Coast
Top stories - The New York Times - 3 days ago

‘A shelter from the growling Atlantic’: our stay in lighthouse keeper’s cottage on Ireland’s west coast

Topics

Related

Scot gets dream job as lighthouse keeper on remote Australian island

Labor strikes shut down operations at Canada's container ports from East to West Coast, with U.S. trade left in limbo

Ireland shifts diversity dial to stay with the pace

Crews working to contain wildfires on East and West Coasts

Atmospheric River Shifts South: What to Expect from the Forecast

Stormy weather slams several portions of West Coast

2 dead in Washington state as bomb cyclone hammers West Coast

Atmospheric River Brings Rain, Snow and Power Outages to California and West Coast

More from The Guardian

Cop29 agrees $1.3tn climate finance deal but campaigners brand it a ‘betrayal’

World will be ‘unable to cope’ with volume of plastic waste in 10 years, warns expert

‘He was wedged like an hourglass’: rescuers describe 20-hour ordeal ending with amputation of rafter’s leg

Rabbi in UAE killed in ‘antisemitic terror incident’, says Israel

Russia ‘aggressive’ and ‘reckless’ in cyber realm and threat to Nato, UK minister to warn