Helvick

Helvick or Helvick Head (Irish: Heilbhic, Ceann Heilbhic, Old Norse: Hellavík) is a headland on the southern end of Dungarvan Harbour, Ireland; it is the eastern tip of the Ring Peninsula.[1][2][3]

Helvick
Headland
View from Ballyvoile out to Helvick Head
View from Ballyvoile out to Helvick Head
Helvick is located in Ireland
Helvick
Helvick
Coordinates: 52.053615°N 7.536734°W / 52.053615; -7.536734
Age380 million years
GeologyOld Red Sandstone

Formed of Old Red Sandstone, it is the easternmost protrusion of a ridge that begins near Cork City.[4]

Royal National Lifeboat Institution station

Name

Helvick is one of a very few Irish place names derived from Old Norse. The second part, -vík, means "bay" (cf. Smerwick); and -hel in Icelandic means death or danger. (See the Icelandic adjective helvískur which means dangerous). Helvik would be recognised by an Icelander as suggesting a dangerous harbour entrance, especially in view of the presence of the very dangerous Blackrock right in the entrance to Dungarvan Harbour and just over a mile from the headland of Helvick.

the meaning of the first part is unclear, but it may mean "healthy", "white", "holy", or "safe"; compare with Hellvik, Norway.[5]

Wildlife
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Helvick Head Pier.

Helvick Head is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).[6] The cliffs are a nesting site for seabirds including choughs and shag. Other bird species include razorbill, Northern fulmar, peregrine falcon, black-legged kittiwake, black guillemot, and common murre (guillemot).[7]

Plants include gorse, bell heather, ling, devil's-bit scabious, heath bedstraw, bog violet, burnet rose, thrift, kidney vetch, sea mayweed and wild carrot.[8][9]

References
  1. "Through the Gaeltacht and to the sea". The Irish Times. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  2. "Helvick Head - Ireland Highlights".
  3. "eOceanic". eoceanic.com.
  4. "Old Red Sandstone". University College Cork.
  5. "Heilbhic/Helvick". Logainm.ie.
  6. Helvick Head SAC | National Parks & Wildlife Service
  7. "Helvick Head SAC" (PDF). National Parks & Wildlife Service. January 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  8. "Helvick Head". www.askaboutireland.ie.
  9. "The Irish Naturalists' Journal". I.N.J. Committee. 8 February 1968 – via Google Books.
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