Tim Healy would be astonished to know how many motorcyclists have his name on their lips. He was the first Governor-General of the Irish Free State, and in the 1920s he took an interest in this road, which had been laid out by famine relief labour in the 1840s, when starving men were paid a few pence to break stones. The pass was later improved and now carries his name. It crosses the Caha Mountains at 334 metres, between Adrigole on the Cork side and Lauragh on the Kerry side, and it is one of the finest short roads in Ireland.
The climb from the Cork side starts gently and then bites, with a series of hairpins up the rocky mountainside, each bend revealing a wider view of Bantry Bay and the islands scattered across it. At the top, a small car park marks the border between Cork and Kerry, and the view opens in the other direction to the deep inlet of Kenmare Bay and the hills of the Iveragh Peninsula on the far side. The descent to Lauragh is gentler, with open bends and a dramatic drop to the sea.
Treat the road with respect. It is narrow, with limited barriers, and the surface can be rough, with loose stones, damp patches and sheep on the road. The hairpins are tight and the visibility on some is poor, so ride slowly and be ready to meet a camper van head-on. It is no road for coaches or large campervans, which helps. The best time is a dry, clear morning in late spring or early summer, when the light is soft and the gorse is in bloom, but weather rules, and mist can drop onto the pass in minutes. In winter, ice is a hazard.
The Beara Peninsula is wilder and emptier than the Ring of Kerry, and that is its charm. Stone walls snake across bare hillsides, small farms cling to the slopes, and the Atlantic light shifts constantly. Ravens and hooded crows work the rocks, and in the boggy hollows, bog cotton and heather grow in profusion.
Castletownbere, about thirty kilometres to the west, and Kenmare, in the east, are the nearest places with stations. Fill up beforehand, and pack a waterproof, since the Atlantic is never far away.