West Cork · Easy · There and back

Mizen Head: the bridge and the signal station

A short walk inside the Mizen Head visitor site: down the 99 steps and over the arched bridge to the old signal station at Ireland's south-west tip.

Distance
1.6 km (1.0 mi)
Ascent
55 m
Time
About 30 min
High point
84 m
Grade
Easy

Line © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), checked by Global Adventurer.

0 km1 km84 m17 m
Move along the height chart to see each point on the map.
Mizen Head: the bridge and the signal station
Zairon · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The walk

From the car park, go through the visitor centre and follow the cliff path west above the inlet. Go down the 99 steps and cross Mizen Bridge, arched over a sea chasm, to the old signal station at the south-western tip of mainland Ireland, now a small museum about the keepers, early radio and wrecks. Seals, dolphins and gannets are often seen from the paths. Return the same way.

It is 1.6 km there and back with 55 m of ascent; allow about half an hour for the walk and longer for the station. The grade is Easy: short, on railed cliff paths, but the steps are a climb on the way back.

All the paths, the bridge and the station are inside a private visitor site run by the Mizen Tourism Co-operative, and you need a ticket to walk them. Tickets are sold only at the desk: €7.50 for adults, €6 for seniors and students, €4.50 for children, free for under-5s. Until 31 October the site opens daily, 10:30 to 17:00, with the paths closing from 16:30. From 1 November to 16 March it opens at weekends only, 11:00 to 16:00, and is locked at other times. Dogs are welcome on a lead. It can be very windy.

Parking is free. We found no public transport to Mizen Head.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.

Good to know

  • Mizen Head is the south-western tip of mainland Ireland; its signal station, built in the early 1900s to warn ships off this headland, is now a small museum.
  • The arched bridge over the sea chasm was first built in 1910 and has since been rebuilt to the same design.
  • The station's exhibits cover the lighthouse keepers, Marconi-era radio and wrecks on this coast.
  • Seals, dolphins and gannets are often seen from the paths; Barleycove beach lies just to the north-east.

Getting there

Start: Mizen Head visitor centre car park · Free parking. 51.45200, -9.80965

Directions to the start

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Places to stay nearby

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Paths change, and the weather decides the day. The line and figures come from OpenStreetMap and our own checks; take a map, check the forecast, and turn back if it isn't right.