Beach Review: Blind Strand

3rd Jun 2015

You know it’s officially summer when the first PROC beach review of the year appears in the Evening Echo. Yes folks, it’s time to get the dusty short pants down from the attic, scrub the black damp patches off your beach blanket and repair those aging flip flops with duct tape – the sunshine season is upon us. Naturally the season will also contain the usual mix of rain, sleet, northerly gales and the odd snow flake but that’s half the fun – you never know what the next day is going to bring. 

We go to extraordinary lengths here at PROC to make sure you can beach it up to the maximum without ever having to cross the county bounds. To leave the Rebel County to reach the seaside is entirely unnecessary, silly and downright immoral when the choice is bigger and better than any other county.
 

How to get to Blind Strand: drive to Courtmacsherry via Timoleague and follow the road through the town and up the hill to the right (straight on is a dead end). About a mile out the road follow the signs left for the Keohane monument (the next left after the crossroads). Take the second left off this road - again towards the Keohane Monument - and follow the road right to the end to Blind Strand.

To convince you that you need never stray too far from Cork we not only remind you of the big name beaches that we are so lucky to have on our 1000kms of coastline but also the more off-the-beaten-track ones where you can bring your old doll for a bit of shmoozin’ or lash a sliotar up and down the beach like the good Sunday morning Junior B substitute you are without the fear of breaking a small child’s skull or knocking over the beer can of a gentleman who has just finished serving a sentence for GBH and has just realised his best friend has been seeing his beour.

Part of the joy of seeking out the more secluded seaside strands for review is that it brings our own undying love for Cork to a level we thought was not possible. It’s like loving your old doll for a decade before she reveals her past as a Michelin Star chef and would like to start cooking again.  

Last weekend, during a jaunt around west Cork, the People’s Republic of Cork Beach Review Committee stumbled across what we believe is arguably the county’s best beach. And we never knew about it. Morto.

Blind Strand sits between Broad Strand and Barry Point – a short drive from Courtmacsherry. This beautiful and idyllic strip of sand is like something off the cover of one of those galling foreign holiday catalogues that gets shoved in your letterbox on a dark and dreary January morning.

There’s no need to take a frustrating red-eyed early morning flight to reach this paradise within paradise though – you can drive here from the city within an hour as long as you don’t get stuck at a cattle crossing on the Bandon to Timoleague road.

The name of the beach itself hints at other historical dramas – the speculation being that sailors heading for Courtmacsherry would not see the bay until the last minute – the perfect spot for pirates to lie in wait to blindside merchant ships.

But this cul-de-sac’s history headline is more recent. A small sign just before the slip way on the northern side of the strand tells you that it is from here that a dozen Cork men rowed for three hours to reach the site where the infamous Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat 100 years ago.

Unfortunately they could only bring back some of the 1,000 bodies (the ship sank in just 18 minutes) but the Blind Strand men were regarded as heroes for their efforts. Something to quietly ponder as you look out towards the Old Head of Kinsale while balmed out. 

Blind has that much sought after soft powdery white sand that tickles your toes as you step on to the beach. On some Cork beaches light sand can get whirled into a mini-sandstorm in a big blow but the pretty hill on the southside of the beach acts as a giant windbreaker to the prevailing south-westerly wind – greatly reducing the chance of your towel being whipped off you as you tog out in the breeze.

There’s plenty room for a puck around here and swimming is best nearer to high tide (you can check tide times for Courtmac on the PROC android and iPhone app) and the beach’s orientation means it’s not very wavy either – much safer for smallies to run riot in the shallows and nice calm swims for biggies in the pristine blue water.

The most striking thing about Blind Strand though is that it is always very quiet – perfect for those who like to avoid the teeming hoards at beaches like Myrtleville where you’re never more than arms length from a bag of beer cans and a screeching wan on a telephone. Your nearest source of 99s is a good bit away in Timoleague but a cool pint of life-saving Murphy's is just a stone's throw away at the Lifeboat bar in Courtmac. 

There’s no mobile reception around Blind Strand either so it’s the perfect spot to disconnect from the world.The only sounds you’ll hear here are waves gently lapping up on the sand, the odd bit of cow banter in the field behind the beach and the occasional passing tractor.

It’s like nobody knows about it. Except you now, bah.