Located on Ireland’s southwest coast, Toormore Cove is situated at the head of Toormore Bay a coastal bight that lies between Crookhaven and Long Island. It offers a secure anchorage in a remote and secluded location.

Set within an inlet at the head of a bay the anchorage offers good protection from all but strong southerly component winds where it would be subject to swell. Approaches to the general area are straightforward but the bay requires daylight access as there are some easily avoided but unmarked dangers in and around the bay.

Keyfacts for Toormore Cove

Position and approaches

Haven position

51° 30.987' N, 009° 38.796' W

Midway between both shorelines as the direction of the cove changes from north east to north west

What is the initial fix?

This is approximately at the centre of the mile wide gap between Amsterdam Reef, to the northwest, and the 5 metre high Duharrig Island, to the southwest. The conspicuous castle, on Castle Point, will be seen about three quarters of a mile east from here. A course of north by northeast sets up a central path into Toormore Bay.

What are the key points of the approach?

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What's the story here?

Toormore Bay opens 2½ miles to the northeast of the entrance to Crookhaven. The large bay nearly cuts halfway across the Mizen Head promontory, with the remaining isthmus between Dunmanus Harbour, opposite, and Toormore Bay being only 1½ miles across. At its head are the two small inlets of Carrigmore Bay, to the northwest, and Toormore Cove tucked in its northeastern corner. Toormore Covis a pretty remote inlet in a natural rural setting.




The cove provides a good anchorage during offshore winds with excellent sand holding.

How to get in?

Offshore details are available in southwestern Ireland’s Coastal Overview of Cork Harbour to Mizen Head for seaward approaches. Local area approaches are available in the Crookhaven Harbour entry as the anchorage lies close to Toormore’s approach path.




Toormore Cove is a small south-facing anchorage set into a northern fork at the head of Toormore Bay. It is accessed through Toormore Bay that is entered between Ballyrisode Point and Castle Point, about 1.2 miles east-southeast. Castle Point can be positively identified by the ruins of a square castle set on a 12 metres high rocky ridge close east of the point. Rocky foul ground extends for about 500 yards off the point.




Eastward of the bay and 1½ miles to the east-northeast of Castle Point stands the equally conspicuous landmark of the old Leamcon Signal Tower on the crest of the round-topped 107-metre high Tower Hill.



The small islet of Duharrig, 5.2 metres high, lies 0.4 miles southwest of Castle Point and is the outermost danger in the southern approach to Toormore Bay. Rocky foul ground extends for a distance of 350 metres to the westward and 500 metres to the eastward of the island.




The principal dangers are however off the opposite side Ballyrisode Point, Toormore Bay’s western extremity, where foul ground extends south for nearly ½ a mile. The key danger is the outer unmarked Amsterdam Reef on south and situated 0.4 of a mile south from Ballyrisode Point and awash at low water. About midway between the Amsterdam Reef and the point is Amsterdam Rock that always shows 1.2 metres above the water.




In settled weather, it is possible to pass between Toormore and Ballydivlin Bay by cutting midway between Ballyrisode Point and the always visible Amsterdam Rock. The 400-metre wide gap has a least depth of 10 metres. Boats hugging the coast of Ballydivlin Bay should keep clear of its northeast end to the west of Ballyrisode Point. The northeast head of the bay has shallow rocky patches with Murrilaghmore, with 1.8 metres over it, being the outer danger. The alignment 093°T of Amsterdam Rock situated 400, metres south-southeast of Ballyrisode Point, and the south side of Dick's Island, 1 mile to the east and close to Castle Point, clears all these inshore dangers.




The initial fix is set in the midpoint of the mile-wide gap between Amsterdam Reef, to the northwest, and the 5-metre high Duharrig Island, to the southwest. The shores of the bay are fringed with rocks but at no greater distance than 200 metres. A central course of north by northeast for just over 1 mile leads up through Toormore Bay to the cove presents no issue.




The entrance to Toormore Cove is in the middle and at the head of the bay. On approach, the cove appears closed off by the large Carrigmore Rock situated about 300 metres south of the entrance.
Carrigmore will open to a vessel maintaining a central path up to the head of Toormore Bay and reveal the entrance to Toormore Cove.




Toormore Cove is clear up the centre from any known obstructions. Continue into the cove’s entrance where there is ample deep water and maintain a central path up to about a third of the way in where the two headlands converge and it begins to become shallow.




Anchor according to draft over sand that provides excellent holding. Land on any of the beaches. Quieter beaches will be found on the west, and the best road access will be found on the eastern side.

Why visit here?

Toormore takes its name from its surrounding townland which is taken from the Irish An Tuar Mór. This is a derivative of 'An Tuair Mhóir' where 'mór' means 'great' or 'big' and 'tuair' means 'paddock' or 'cultivated field' or 'pasture'. So the area name means 'the big pasture'.




Inhabitation of this area is amongst the earliest nationally. Few traces of these original foraging/hunting/fishing people remain to this day, but we know they were here from about 8000 BC. The Neolithic period, from about 4000 BC, brought farming to this region and the denizens of Toormore Bay became more settled, clearing trees, growing crops and herding cattle. Around 2500 BC copper mining commenced on Mount Gabriel and farming intensified and it is from this period that artefacts started to appear. Most notably a legacy of wedge-shaped tombs with one of the most perfect examples overlooking Toormore Bay.




The Altar Wedge Tomb sits on a small level green, back about 30 metres from the bay’s rocky eastern shoreline. First erected at the end of the Neolithic period, 3500–2000 BC, the wedge-shaped tomb is one of a dozen in the Mizen Peninsula. Built from local slabs, the tomb remains fairly well preserved. The sides of the gallery are each represented by three stones and a roof stone remains in position above the eastern end. The entrance is aligned with the 8 miles distant pyramid-shaped Mizen Peak behind which the sun sets. Deposits containing pieces of copper have been found here directly establishing the connection between the tomb builders and metal users when the tradition of wedge tomb building had been well established in this area.




Archaeologists recently uncovered cremated human bone under the tomb, an unburnt human tooth, which they radiocarbon dated to about 2,000 BC. It is believed that Bronze Age families may have honoured the spirits of their ancestors whose ashes they buried in the wedge tomb. The tomb continued to be used as a sacred site in the centuries that followed. Evidence remains of shallow pits, probably with food offerings, that were dug into the chamber floor in the later Bronze Age, between 1,250 and 550 BC. Also, Celtic Iron Age people filled a pit with trace seashells and fish bones sometime between 124 and 224 AD.




As the name 'Altar' suggests, this is an ancient burial place at the edge of the ocean that was a focus of ritual activity across 4000 years. But it is most likely that it acquired the 'Alter' name in more recent times. The ritual use of the site ended with the arrival of Christianity, but it briefly resumed here during the 18th-century. During this period, it was forbidden by law to say mass in a church and the site was used as a 'Mass Rock' with the tomb providing the altar for the priests. The Altar Wedge Tomb is now a listed national monument in the care of the Commissioners of Public Works for the state.




The Altar Church, shortly along the bay road and overlooking the head of the inlet, also has an interesting history. Most unusually it is a Protestant church that has an Irish name Teampall na mBocht, the 'Church of the Poor'. The church was built in 1847 that became known as 'Black 47' as it marked the height of the Great Famine. At this time Schull saw an average of 25 men, women and children dying every day of starvation, dysentery or famine fever. During the entire period, nearby Cove saw its population fall from 254 in 1841 to 53 in 1851. But Altar escaped the holocaust relatively lightly with its population fall being relatively slight, from 370 to 343. The reason for this is to a small part that the population rely upon fishing but more importantly the efforts of one man, the Protestant Rector William Fisher.




As the crisis deepened, Fisher begged for help from well-wishers both in Ireland and England. When the money came in, Fisher set up soup kitchens and distributed food, medicine, blankets and clothing. But he wanted to do more than hand out charity. A man of his time, he firmly believed in the dignity of labour and wanted to provide paid work. So he raised money for the building of the church as a way of providing paid work for the poor of the parish, most of whom were Catholic. So Teampol na mBocht, was a church for the poor, built by the poor to keep them from an untimely entry into the next world.



The road on the eastern side can be reached from its beach set into a rocky fissure at the entrance on the eastern shore. The tomb can be reached above this and the Altar Church is a stroll up the road. Toormore village is only a few minutes away and a local pub is within five minutes.




From a boating perspective, Toormore Cove offers peace and tranquillity amidst some of West Cork’s most beautiful scenery. It is truly a delightful anchorage and the perfect place to spend a night at anchor with family or friends in offshore or settled weather. The cove is perfect for children with a host of small enclosed and often private beaches on either side of the entrance. The head of the inlet, by contrast, opens to a wide sandy area that offers safe exploration at high water from a tender. So with the adjacent Carrigmore Bay, which may have slightly better beaches, this entire area is truly perfect for a family visit in sunny weather.

What facilities are available?

There are no facilities at this remote anchorage.

Any security concerns?

Never an issue known to have occurred to vessel anchored in Toormore Cove.

With thanks to:

Burke Corbett, Gusserane, New Ross, Co. Wexford.