The lighthouse at St John’s Point is striped like many
lighthouses, but is distinctive in that the stripes are black and yellow in the
manner of a bumble bee. It is the
tallest onshore lighthouse on the Irish coast, having been extended to a height
of 40m in the 1880s, and it was automated in 1981. In 2015 the locals in the area were up in
arms about a proposal to replace the six-ton antique lamp with a cheaper LED
version. The headland was immortalised
in song by Van Morrison when, in his song Coney Island, he talked of “stopping off
at St John’s Point”. Its other
claim to fame is that the ill-fated Titanic did her sea trials in the waters
off here.
The village of Killough, formerly named St Ann’s Port, lies
on the west shore of an almost-enclosed bay.
The present-day name comes from the Irish Cill Locha, meaning “church of
the loch”, the church in question being long since gone. The harbour was built in the 18th
century and became an important departure point for the export of locally grown
cereals. However, by the 19th
century the port was going into a decline due to the collapse of grain
prices. Around the same time the village
became popular as a seaside destination, not least for its attractive tree-lined
main street lined with low-rise cottages and pubs. Killough and Coney Island, facing the village
across the bay, had their moment of Hollywood fame in 2012 when they featured in
the short film The Shore, directed by local lad Terry George, which won the Academy
Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
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| St John's (19), October 2009. Photo by Ardfern, via Wikimedia Commons. |
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