Dont live for tomorrow! Heaven is for Sale!

 Have you ever driven over Conor pass and looked down below and wondered who and how could I own that? People talk about the ring of Kerry but where on the ring of Kerry can you experience a drive like the one that goes over the pass? I spoke with the owner of all this land and he is looking to sell. Why? Because he can't live for tomorrow. The owner wants all this to be kept in safe hands and to be kept exactly as it is. I know the place very well and I don't know it because I have driven the pass! I know it intimately. I grew up fishing the Owenmore river which drains all the water within that catchment and as a child loved wandering through the bogs of the valley. Most peoples perception of the valley which has become known as the Conor Pass is of this beautiful untouched valley of Irish countryside. The truth is 90 percent of people wouldn't be able to walk 99 percent of the land. It's a pure bog-land with rocky uplands and will never be profitable. The only sure way to make money from it would be the plant forestry in the whole valley which would be almost impossible as you have a very important salmon river running through it. Yes you have grazing which provides grants and such but with future projections of a decrease in sheep numbers rather than an increase in sheep numbers this also does not look good. So I suppose we are onto the subject of National pride and ownership of land. Now this is an interesting one because Leo has come out and said he would like to buy this land but not at the asking point. What you won't read in other blogs or newspapers is this, adjacent to the land is a private fishery, the Owenmore River. This was owned by a German man called Paul Metz and recently bought by the Irish business family the Roche Family. Any future plans will very much depend on what the Roche Family thinks should happen. Another issue many years ago was a ring road planned to link Brandon head with Dingle, again this was shut down by locals. In my humble opinion the locals would want this land kept as is, grazed land and people passing through on the pass road. The problem with that is why buy the land then? When it comes to things like this, I am a pure capitalist! I would like to see a cafe built at the viewing point. I think hike trails should be made linking peddlers lake with the valley down below, but then do you destroy the authenticity of the place? I was listening to a little recording of the owner Micheal Noonan the owner of the land and he said we as Irish people don't respect our scenic land and I think he is right. We don't respect our land and we have treated it terribly but this is the catch 22. We as a society are at crossroads. We have a green initiative of re-wilding and re-wetting but we have the whole of the Dingle Peninsula reliant on grazing. Will Conor pass be bought by the goveremnt and used as a place to re wild? Who knows. I think that Conor pass will be just fine without us and the river will still run through it. I think I will be the only one interested in walking its land and go off the beat and track every now and again. This valley is empty of people. I remember an old bog road where we used to drive in my fathers 4&4 many years ago. I drove back down the same road last year, and what was left was a road completely overgrown. The road was covered over in brambles and hawthorns. It was almost sad and amazing at the same time. I think this news story will move on and will be forgotten about. I think people will still look and wonder from the viewing point for many more years, they might even get an ice cream from the ice cream van that frequents the viewing point in the summer. I do think this place will be bought and bought, it should be. Like i said I know this place better than most and it is magical. It will stay that way I can reassure you. Dingle can be dingle but this place will stay the same because it doesn't need the glamour and the lights. It wont sell itself for a profit because it wont allow it. You wont see big construction sites and big fancy owners making huge changes. You may see a few new low impact hiking trails and they are well needed. I worte this because I love the place! Not the people but the place. I love every grain of sand and every small mountain loch. I know the place better than the people back there. I love the fact that a tralee man cycled every day from tralee to build the grotto that leads you into the valley up the Cloghane side of Brandon. I love the story of Saint Brendan and I do believe he battled the devil within the mountain. I caught my first salmon in the Owenmore River and i can assure you that I will catch my last salmon in that river before I die. It's the remoteness and loneliness that I seek there. While talking on the phone to Micheal about his land he said to me, "Don't live for tomorrow Daniel" and that's just it. This place doesn't need to live for tomorrow because it's fine as it is today. What Micheal saw and dreamed while buying all these plots of land and piecing them together was what we are all looking for. A little bit of heaven here on earth. God bless you Micheal. ❤🙏

Brandon Point, Mia, August 2014