Fahamore

Fahamore (Irish: An Fhaiche Mhór, meaning "the large green") is a small hamlet/village on the Maharees peninsula in County Kerry. It consists of about 50 houses and one famous pub, Spillane's. Fahamore was historically much larger than it is now as evidenced by two old schoolhouses in the village, one dating from 1849 and the other from 1911. Fahamore is located on the shore of Brandon Bay and is a centre for diving, surfing, windsurfing and sea bass fishing.

Fahamore is also a centre for currach (or Naomhóg) building in the home of master currach builder Monty O'Leary. Currachs are still used as both fishing boats and trawler tenders in Fahamore at the local fishing harbour located on Scraggane Bay. Fahamore hosts a currach racing regatta every July where teams from the western seaboard of Ireland (from Kerry to Galway) compete in the All-Ireland Currach racing series.

The cliff face at Fahamore has extensive evidence of prehistoric settlement in the form of shell middens - a survey of the middens can be found in the book "Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula".

The Night of the Big Wind - local oral histories tell of a night in 1839 when there was a particularly bad storm.

A three masted sailing ship, the Charger, carrying a cargo of deal, was wrecked in Carralougha in 1890 - the remains of the ship's boilers are still in evidence on the rocks near Fahamore at low tide.

A sea wall was built, probably in the 19th century, to prevent coastal erosion - it had limited success, as it now lies in pieces about 20m from the cliff edge - in the 1990s rock armour was put in place by Kerry County Council to protect the coast from Fahamore southwards for a distance of about two kilometers.

A comprehensive list of local placenames and their origins is contained in the book "Triocha Cead Corca Dhuibhne" by An Seabhac. The real meaning of Fahamore is the 'Big Green' i.e. a reference to the big open green area in front of Spillane's bar.

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Wikipedia