Driving the Beara Peninsula of western County Cork Pam and I were lucky enough to encounter a famine road traversing the Healy Pass. Formerly known as Kerry Pass, renamed in honor of Timothy Michael Healy, the first Governor-General, Irish Free State when the road was improved in 1932 shortly after his death. In Irish the name is Bealach Scairte.

Built by workers from the starving poor during the Potato Famine of the 19th century, one of the government projects to provide relief and improve infrastructure. This photograph is from where Healy Pass, R574, begins from the town Adrigole, County Cork. The mountain is the highest of the Caha Mountains of the Beara peninsula, is known by several names: “Adrigole Mountain,” “Hungry Hill,” “Cnoc Daod,” “Knockday,”j and “Knockdhead.” “Hungry Hill” is also a 1943 novel by Daphne du Maurier, thought to be set on the Beara peninsula.

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The water is the Adrigole River.

References

Wikipedia articles for “Timothy Michael Healy” and “Healy Pass.”

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