The Atlantic Golf Links Hotel, Harbour View, Kilbrittain
(Picture courtesy of the National Library of Ireland)The Atlantic Golf Links Hotel, Harbour View, Kilbrittain, was built about 1903 by Ester Mary Alcock Stewell of the Stewell Family of Kilbrittain Castle. The timber framed upper structure being originally part of a temporary building erected the previous year at the Cork International Exhibition.
With its breathtaking views over Harbour View and the wider Courtmacsherry Bay beyond, the Hotel provided a nine hole golf course, tennis courts, salt baths, a private shuttle bus to collect and dispatch its guests and a ferry service to and from Courtmacsherry (the West Cork Railway connected to Courtmacsherry at the time). The Golf Links Hotel operated until about 1921-22 when it was sold to the Walsh Family of Bandon at which point it became a private family residence.
Sometime in the 1950s, the property turned public once again when the Horse Rock Inn was opened (probably taking its name from the black craggy rock that appears out in bay at low tide). The property was sold to McCarthy of Cork (builder) around 1970 and finally The Horse Rock Inn was destroyed by fire in 1973, the fire apparently being due to an electrical fault.
Below the ruins of that once stately building with its distinctive stone steps leading up left and right of the main doorway, the base stone structure being still mostly intact. The Horse Rock Inn is once again generating interest, the property along with six acres was offered for sale in Summer 2004, just over one hundred years since the Atlantic Golf Links Hotel first opened its doors to the public.
Ruins of the Horse Rock Inn (Atlantic Golf Links Hotel), Harbour View, Kilbrittain