The colourful houses of Allihies look cheerful against the bare brown hills, but they were built on the back of a hard industry. Copper was mined here from 1812 until the 1960s, on the western end of the Beara Peninsula, and at its height around the 1840s, hundreds of men, women and children worked underground and on the surface. The mine owners, the Puxley family, brought in skilled miners from Cornwall, and their descendants left the tall stone engine houses, with their chimneys, that still stand on the hillside above the village like ruined chapels. The Allihies Copper Mine Museum, in a former church, tells the story of the mines and the people.
The village itself is small, with a few brightly painted houses, pubs, a shop and cafés, set above a bay with a golden beach. Ballydonegan Beach, remarkably, is not entirely natural. Part of its sand is the crushed waste of the mine, dumped into the sea, and it has a distinct coppery glint. The setting is gorgeous: the Atlantic breaks on the sand, and the green slopes rise behind. In summer, the village hosts music and art events, and in the evenings, the pubs have live traditional music.
The ride to Allihies from Castletownbere, about fifteen kilometres, is one of the loveliest on the peninsula. The road climbs along the coast, past small farms, stone walls and views to the Skellig Islands on a clear day, then drops to the village in a series of bends. It is narrow, with the occasional blind corner and sheep, but the surface is mostly decent and the traffic light, apart from a few summer weeks. The road goes on beyond the village toward Cod's Head and the end of the Beara, where it narrows to a lane, and the views over the ocean are great.
Heather, gorse and fuchsia hedges colour the landscape, and the climate is mild and wet, thanks to the Gulf Stream, so that palm trees grow in sheltered gardens. Seabirds nest on the cliffs, and on the water, dolphins and porpoises are sometimes seen. The night sky here is dark and rich with stars,.
Pubs and cafés serve soup, sandwiches, seafood and strong tea, and the local pub is the best place for conversation, and a pint of stout and a little music in the evening.