This is the third lighthouse erected on this site (see previous post) It was built in 1853 and the photos are a bit misleading as there is a further black band below the lower white one, together with a keeper's cottage.
Why can't you see it? Well, the Old Head of Kinsale is a promontory, but it's practically an island as the piece joining the mainland is so slim. In the 1990s, much to the dismay of the local population, the entire Old Head was purchased by a rather expensive golf club, who immediately erected barbed wire and hired security to keep people out.
The local people were enraged and organised mass picnics where they would break through the security and picnic on the edge of the cliff by the lighthouse. People had been doing this for years here. In fact they had been doing just that on May 1st 1915 and watched stunned as the Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast with a terrible loss of life.
Anyway, corporate business won the day. The High Court upheld the right of the Golf Club to keep people out and now the public aren't allowed past the ruined watchtower below, unless they want to pay the exorbitant membership fee. The hill just before the watchtower affords the best views currently possible to plebs like myself but the head must slope seaward on the far side as you only can see three and a half bands of the tower.
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