![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4987154_2_articleinlinemobile_Copy_20of_20Untitled-639.jpg\" "\\"The")
The unique beer garden.\u00a0<\/p>\nWhat are the ingredients for a top-notch pub?<\/p>\n
In the case of Eileen\u2019s Bar in Kilcrohane, it\u2019s the glow of the open turf fire and the gleam on the ancient brass bell that\u2019s used to call time, or to quieten this 300-year-old pub for a regular\u2019s party piece.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the old slate floor, the traditional music sessions, the local eggs, honey and potatoes on sale, the gorgeous old bar, and the flower-filled churns outside the red front door.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Eileen Lehane, the cheerful, gregarious landlady behind the bar, who knows everyone from here to Kingdom Come and never forgets a face.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the welcoming exterior with its scatter of bright, painted furniture, the outdoor reading room complete with books, and the cheerful beer garden around the side that hosts every kind of celebration, from a wedding to a christening.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s not forget The Parlour, where flame-haired singer, song-writer and folklorist Lisa Lambe last summer performed her acclaimed show Nightvisiting, before a spell-bound audience.<\/p>\n
Eileen\u2019s Bar is nestled near to the banks of a stream in the village of Kilcrohane on the Sheep\u2019s Head Peninsula amid some of the most heart-rendingly beautiful landscapes that the Wild Atlantic Way can offer.<\/p>\n
The unique beer garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This bar is the real thing. A gem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like stepping into the past; it\u2019s a lovely typical old Irish country pub,\u201d Eileen says.<\/p>\n
Local resident and pub regular Elaine Spillane echoes her: \u201cThat\u2019s what people love about it. This pub is what people think of when they think of a traditional Irish pub.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every Sunday after Mass in the nearby church, regulars call in to Eileen\u2019s for a mug of tea or coffee and a slice of cake, for which, Elaine reveals, Eileen Lehane has yet to take a penny.<\/p>\n
\u201cEileen is a great personality. She never forgets a face and the village wouldn\u2019t be the same without her,\u201d adds Elaine, 70, who compares the little pub to \u201ca shining beacon in the dark of winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a meeting place for locals, for walkers and for visitors, and it\u2019s a great place to walk into on a Friday.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy favourite thing about it is that often there\u2019s someone playing there and afterwards we have a sing-song and sometimes a dance to the music as well! We all have a party piece that we sing.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThe pub is the heart of the village. It\u2019s great for walkers too; you could have 30 walkers in there at weekends and the walkers often have great musicians amongst them.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of them come from walking clubs in the city and stay at the Bridgeview and enjoy a drink in Eileen\u2019s Bar,\u201d adds Elaine. \u201cIt just draws people in!\u201d<\/p>\n
The pub has been part of Eileen\u2019s life since the age of eight or nine.<\/p>\n
A native of the village, the 66-year-old says she was literally reared in the pub, which was owned by her grandmother\u2019s stepbrother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved into the pub with my grandmother to take care of the poor man when he became ill with cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Eileen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4987157_2_articleinlinemobile_Copy_20of_20Untitled-644.jpg\" "\\"Eileen")
Eileen Lehane, owner and proprietor of Eileen\u2019s Bar in the village of Kilcrohane, on the Sheep\u2019s Head Peninsula in West Cork.<\/p>\n
Eileen moved away to work, but in her early thirties, when the pub, then known as Fitzpatrick\u2019s, came up for lease in 1991, she moved home and took it on.<\/p>\n
She remembers a time when there were several pubs in and around Kilcrohane\u2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was the White House pub just outside the village, the Bayview down the road from my own pub, and a bar in what was the Dunmahon Hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eileen\u2019s Bar has always been a pub. \u201cIt\u2019s held a licence going back about 300 years,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe open fire is a big feature of the pub. It\u2019s a traditional turf fire. We get a lot of hikers who like nothing more than to sit at the fire drying off and having a pint.\u201d<\/p>\n
A painting of the pub, dating from the mid-1970s, shows horses outside the door belonging to farmers en route to the local creamery, cattle being driven down the road, and Eileen herself, packing bottles along with several members of the family and some neighbours.<\/p>\n
Eileen bought the business in March, 2020, two days before the country came to a standstill for the covid lockdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a winter\u2019s evening, the great fire and Eileen\u2019s welcome and her kindness to children makes it a very friendly place,\u201d comments local farmer Seamus Daly.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEileen\u2019s is the venue for all local milestones, from proposals to funerals and everything in between\u201d observes Daly, a pub regular for the past 50 years.\n <\/p>\n
Friday nights are always busy, summer or winter, as people pile in to enjoy the performances of traditional musicians who play in the bar every summer Sunday, from 6pm to 9pm.<\/p>\n
The bar also hosts a lot of social and charity fundraising events.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople bring their own food and music for birthdays, christenings or weddings,\u201d says Eileen. \u201cWe also provide a venue for funeral get-togethers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery August, I hold a big fundraiser for the Bantry hospice. That\u2019s very close to my heart. It\u2019s one of several over the year,\u201d she says, adding that the bar is also involved in many annual local events like the Kilcrohane Summer Carnival and the Easter festival, which features the highly popular Ceol on the Coast.<\/p>\n
Like everywhere else in the country, the cost and availability of holiday accommodation in the area is an increasing problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of rental accommodation has moved into private ownership,\u201d explained Eileen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of rent means people are looking at paying a fair whack to rent a holiday home in the village and surrounding areas during the summer months – and that\u2019s before they get a bite to eat, or have a drink out, or take the kids to the pool in Bantry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge of keeping a small pub going is unremitting. \u201cPub owners have fierce rates to pay. You have high water and electricity bills, you\u2019re keeping the fire going with wood, coal and turf,\u201d says Eileen.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectricity prices have gone to hell. The beer is working 24-7; the cooler is plugged in day and night.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning a pub has become very expensive. You have an awful lot to pay upfront before you even sell a pint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eileen\u2019s not ready to throw in the towel just yet though. \u201cI\u2019ll keep going for a few more years. I\u2019ll probably hand it on to the next generation when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What are the ingredients for a top-notch pub? In the case of Eileen\u2019s Bar in Kilcrohane, it\u2019s the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,10414],"class_list":["post-326951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pub"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}