Loop Head

Where it sits. Loop Head — Ceann Léime, the leap head — is the blunt western end of a long finger of County Clare that divides the Atlantic from the mouth of the River Shannon. Kerry Head faces it across the estuary. The peninsula is so narrow along much of its length that barely a kilometre of land keeps it from being an island, and that geometry defines the place: ocean swell on one shoulder, sheltered estuary water on the other, with fields of grazing and stone walls running clean to the cliff edge in between.

The story behind it. A light has burned here since 1670, when a stone-vaulted cottage carried a coal-fired brazier on its roof, tended by a keeper who hauled fuel up by hand. A conventional tower replaced it in 1802, and the present 23-metre lighthouse dates from 1854. It was electrified in 1971 and automated in 1991, and it still works, throwing its character out across one of the busiest approaches on the Irish coast — the Shannon estuary carries traffic to Foynes and Moneypoint, and navigation is controlled from Foynes. Cut into the turf beside the head is a giant EIRE sign in white stones, laid during the Second World War to tell aircrews they were crossing neutral territory, one of dozens around the coast and among the best preserved.

On screen. Loop Head was one of the mainland stand-ins for Ahch-To in The Last Jedi, filmed over three days from 17 to 19 May 2016. The crew worked a natural rock amphitheatre near the lighthouse, sealing off the headland while the cameras rolled. The footage shows Rey at the cliff edge looking seaward, and part of it appeared in the film's first teaser trailer, which is why the silhouette felt familiar to many people long before they knew where it was. As at the other Irish locations, nothing was built permanently and no set survives.

What you actually see today. From the car park below the lighthouse a short grass walk leads to the cliff edge, where the sea has cut a deep channel isolating a stack known as Diarmuid and Gráinne's Rock, after the lovers of Irish legend. The headland's Irish name, Ceann Léime, means leap head, and the older story attached to it has Cú Chulainn jumping the gap to escape the hag Mal, who is said to have drowned in the attempt and given her name to the Shannon's Mal Bay. Cliffs here run about 40 to 60 metres, low by Clare standards but arranged in tiers that make them unusually photogenic in evening light, since the head faces west into the sunset with nothing between it and Newfoundland. The lighthouse tower itself opens to visitors in season with guided access to the lantern room, and the former keeper's cottage is let as self-catering accommodation.

Along the peninsula. The Bridges of Ross, five kilometres north-east, is the surviving natural arch of what were once three; the collapsed remains and the surge channels around it make it one of the finest seawatching stations in Europe during autumn westerlies, when petrels, shearwaters and skuas pass close inshore. Carrigaholt, on the estuary side, is the base for boat trips to see the Shannon's resident bottlenose dolphins, a population of well over a hundred animals that lives in the estuary year-round. Kilbaha holds the Little Ark, a wooden mobile chapel wheeled onto the strand in the 1850s so Mass could be said below the high-water mark, beyond a landlord's jurisdiction. Kilkee, at the peninsula's neck, adds a Victorian seaside town, the Pollock Holes rock pools and the Diamond Rocks cliff walk.

Walking and dark skies. A waymarked loop of about 12 kilometres links the lighthouse with the coast road and the fields behind, following the cliff line north past blowholes, collapsed sea caves and the ruins of small famine-era holdings; a shorter headland circuit takes under an hour. Because the peninsula has almost no street lighting and no town of any size west of Kilkee, it is one of the darkest accessible places on the Irish west coast, and the lighthouse keeps a modest programme of stargazing evenings in autumn and winter when the sky cooperates.

Getting there and timing. Loop Head is about an hour and 15 minutes from Ennis and two hours from Shannon Airport, on the R487 through Kilkee and Kilbaha. There is no useful public transport; a car or bike is needed. The peninsula won a European Destinations of Excellence award in 2010 and has kept a deliberately low-key development model since, which means few facilities and no crowds outside July and August. April to September suits best, with May and June for nesting fulmars, guillemots and kittiwakes on the ledges. Parking at the lighthouse is charged in season. Paths are grass, the cliff edges are unfenced and undercut in places, and strong wind on this headland is the normal condition rather than the exception.