Back in Castletownbere and a beautiful sunny day, we follow the sign pointing to the Derrymihane West Boulder Burial and Cloontreem (Clountreem) Wedge Tomb. We opt for a walk uphill to look for the wedge tomb on Eagle Hill. The walk is way marked and we were told by a friendly local resident that the capstone has fallen so easy to miss. And miss it we did; it didn't seem to matter much though as we sat for a while in the lea of some rocks looking out over Bere Haven Harbour glistening in the sunshine. On the way back down we stuck to the trail path and there it was right in front of us. This was the first wedge tomb I had seen and it was much smaller than I imagined and camouflaged by the larger surrounding natural rocks.
The local resident who had given us directions earlier also said there was the shape of a deer on the fallen capstone - we did see this though thought it might be a horse.
Note: there had been a spell of dry weather so the going was relatively easy but be aware this is peat bog land.
Although badly ruined this site is well worth a visit for the fine views it offers over Bear Haven and the fact that it's on that rare thing in the West of Ireland: a public footpath. In August 2003 we parked at Gortagenerick and made the long climb up into the Slieve Mishkish Mountains to join the Beara Way. After a three-hour trek during which time we encountered numerous abandoned cars and dead animals - sheep mostly - and just as we were giving up hope of ever finding this tomb we dropped down into a hollow and there it was on a small ledge to the East of Eagle Hill looking out over Bear Island. Perfect.
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