The Bull Rock in the open Atlantic three miles northwest of Dursey Head in West Cork is one of many massive milestones on the Round Ireland Race. And it has the added distinction of having a tunnel clear through it, with this substantial eye-of-the-needle being so clean-cut that you could be easily persuaded that an ancient seafaring tribe in the neighbourhood were convinced by some swivel-eyed loon that the only way to placate their ill-tempered maritime gods was by hacking through the big rock to create this alternative entrance to the already easily-accessed Kenmare River.

Inside “The Entrance To The Other World” in the Bull Rock, with the sides and roof notably neatly finished

Either way, these days the RIB trips from the little ports in the area make quite the thing of going through it when conditions suit, though even in very good weather it can be such a spooky experience that they’ve got into the habit of describing it as The Entrance to the Other World.

We’ve any amount of such ETTOWs at ancient sites ashore throughout Ireland, but with our coastal waters generally being so tidal, it’s probably not a good idea to encourage the exploration of dodgy sea caves that disappear into Stygian darkness leading God knows where.

But when weather conditions suit, the Bull Rock is a different proposition, and it is many years now since a young Damian Foxall set out one fine day unaccompanied in his Laser from his home port at Derrynane and sailed the 15 miles out to The Bull, sailed through this Entrance to the OtherWorld, and sailed home again wondering if he was the first to do such a thing under sail.

Bull Run for Fun

With the tourism RIBs, it’s barely a morning’s work, though it's more than that if you’re doing the impressive 74-mile Bull Run for Fun from Kenmare. But in the time-saving version, you nip out to the Bull from somewhere further west to transit the tunnel, then take in the passage through Dursey Sound under the cable car before providing a suitably contrasting experience to rugged ocean-leaping by lunching at some agreeable shoreside establishment along that magnificent coastline.

In addition to having the Eye of the Needle, the Bull Rock is also Gannet Central

However, anyone who has experienced this nautical Entrance to the OtherWorld will inevitably wonder if it couldn’t be used for some seaborn period drama.

The storyline might be that the hero with his little sailing boat frees heroine from kidnap by some piratical villain of Beara who has a more substantial ship. Hero and heroine then make good their escape and somehow find themselves closing in on the Bull Rock with villain in hot pursuit. Incredibly skilled and seamanlike hero suddenly disappears his little boat into the tunnel, and demented villain gives direct chase. Hero and heroine emerge safely on other side, while there’s a mighty crash within tunnel as villain comes to a suitably gruesome end.

We won’t hold our breath waiting for the call from Tinseltown. But if it comes, we’ll also offer the alternative proposal that Tom Cruise simply flies a jet fighter through the Bull Rock in pursuit of some worthy objective. It might be a good idea to wait for Low Water to do this, but we think it could be a runner. The challenge is to find some plausible story to hang around it.

The bigger picture – Dursey Sound foreground, Dursey Island and then The Cow and The Bull Rocks beyond. Photo courtesy Irish Cruising Club