A series by motoring historian Bob Montgomery: No 10 - Tim Healy Pass
Kerry. Kingdom of rugged landscape, tourists and some of the greatest driving roads in this country. And there's one road which stands out from all the rest: discovered first by rally-organisers who made it one of the classic special stages of the Circuit of Ireland Rally before that event forsook it's traditional base in Kerry.
The road? Ireland's answer to the famous Stelvio Pass - the Tim Healy Pass.
This famous road was created in 1847 as - like the Antrim Coast road - part of a scheme for famine relief in the Beara region. It provided the first road link between the Kerry and Cork sides of the Beara Peninsula.
But it was Timothy Michael Healy, the Cork politician and first Governor-General of the Irish Free State (and incidentally one of the nationalist politicians who played a key role in introducing the parliamentary legislation which enabled the 1903 Gordon Bennett Race to be held in Ireland) who was responsible for the road taking the form it has today. After his death in 1931, the road was named the Tim Healy Pass in his honour.
And what a road! Best approached from the southern side of the Beara peninsula, turn onto the R574 at Adrigole Bridge bordering Ardrigole Harbour about halfway along the Glengarriff to Castletown Bearhaven road. At first the road rises gently with Adrigole Mountain on the left dwarfed by Hungry Hill (685m) to the southwest.
The character of the road soon changes as signs of habitation disappear to be replaced by surprisingly lush mountain landscape. After about three kilometers the section of road begins which gives the Tim Healy Pass its distinctive character.
Here is a series of hairpin corners more akin to some of the more famous Continental mountain passes - most notably the Stelvio Pass. Snaking thus, the road winds its way up to its highest point where it crosses mountains collectively known as the Caha Mountains.
Pause here to admire the view across the southern Beara Peninsula and marvel at this road. Here too is a plaque commemorating Tim Healy's part in it's construction and also the ancient name of this place, Bealach Scairt - The way of the Sheltered Caves.
As so often happens in Ireland a distance of less than a kilometre brings a very different landscape as we cross over from Cork to Kerry side and begin our descent from the Pass. As we head towards the road's end at Lauragh Bridge, the view is dominated by Glanmore Lake to the west and an altogether more lush landscape than was evident on the first part of our journey.
We drop from the heights as the wonderfully named Stookeennalaokareha rises to the east. Soon we arrive at Lauragh Bridge just north-east of the village at the head of Kilmakilloge Harbour.
The Tim Healy Pass covers a distance of just 13 kilometres - nothing like the distance of the famous continental Älpine passes - but long enough to provide the keen driver with a taste of that type of road which is virtually unique in Ireland.
It's a road to be savoured, driven, and then driven again.
THIS SERIES APPEARS FORTNIGHTLY