The valley’s integral beauty and historic interest:
Local tradition suggests that Ireland’s first settlers landed at Du’n na mBarc where the Mealagh river flows into Bantry Bay. According to “The Annals of the Four Masters”, it was Noah’s granddaughter Ceasair who, with fifty girls and three men, Bith, Ladhra and Fintan, landed here in the year of the great deluge. The Mealagh Valley’s northern road travels east from Dunamark as far as the Barrabui at its eastern end. From Gowlanes bridge the valley’s southern road travels west back towards Bantry town.