Galley Head Lighthouse

Galley Head Lightkeepers’ Houses

There are two houses on the Lighthouse station at Galley Head. This very special place is full of character and the magnificent views are ever-changing.

Less than half an hour from Clonakilty, Galley Head Lighthouse is located on a headland on the Atlantic Ocean. The sea views, the isolation and the light punctuating the sky over the sea and land at night are major reasons to stay at Galley Head.

The station was built in 1875, during the heyday of lighthouse building, and within twenty years of its closest neighbours at Old Head of Kinsale and Fastnet. The lighthouse displays an unusual landward arc of light because, it is said, the Sultan of Turkey asked to be able to see it from nearby Castle Freke at Rosscarbery while on a visit there. The house at Castle Freke, abandoned in 1952, can now be seen from Galley as a gothic ruin.

Lightkeepers who lived here would have witnessed the tragic loss of the Lusitania in 1915, and sighted a German ship carrying arms, in disguise as a Norwegian steam, being pursued up the St. George's Channel by British destroyers a year later. It is also said that Ray Bradbury based his melancholy story The Fog Horn on a reported sighting of a sea serpent at Galley in 1860.

The two houses have been restored to their original symmetrical layout and make an ideal retreat for a family break, or for a group of friends gathering.