Beara Peninsula
barony of Ireland
Beara (Irish: Béarra) or the Beara Peninsula is a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland, bounded between the Kenmare River (which is actually a bay) to the north side and Bantry Bay to the south. It contains two mountain ranges running down its centre: the Caha Mountains and the Slieve Miskish Mountains. The northern part of the peninsula from Kenmare to near Ardgroom is in County Kerry, while the rest forms the barony of Bear in County Cork.
The main features of Beara's landscape were formed during the quaternary period which ended 12,000 years ago. There is evidence of human activity on the peninsula dating from at least 3000 BC. Later it was invaded by Vikings, and in the 17th century became a defensive position for the English Army against French invasion. Its population peaked at 39,000 before the Great Famine; today there are fewer than 6000 living in the area.
The peninsula contains a long and varied scenic coast, two mountain ranges and a number of passes, and forms part of the Wild Atlantic Way.
History
The peninsula was glaciated during the quaternary period; evidence from this era survives in the form of striae around Hungry hill, and erratics on the western road into Glengarriff. The first signs of human activity date to c 3000 BC, and consist of traces of Early Bronze Age settlements. The landscape is rich in megalithic monuments and other prehistoric archeological sites, including over 70 standing stones, 22 stone rows, 38 dolmens, as well as wedge tombs, stone circles.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Beara Peninsula” as barony of Ireland. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q813015. VIAF identifies the subject as 315528229. Authority coordinates are 51.730, -9.840. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Beara Peninsula” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.