West Cork, from Kinsale to the Beara Peninsula and from the Atlantic to the Lee Valley, is no longer an impoverished, rural backwater; it is a popular holiday destination where second homes become main residences. It is remarkable for the many ways people make West Cork work for them: traditional farmers negotiating EU quotas; newcomers setting up restaurants; artists, writers and dot.com millionaires starting ventures to allow them to live where they want. Others work to enhance this unique landscape: from environmental activists on Cool Mountain to the hard-working Shelswell-Whites of Bantry House, wealthy castle restorers like Jeremy Irons and innovative farmers on Beara. ‘You can’t eat scenery’ is an old saying about the difficulty of making a living in beautiful but remote places. But Alannah Hopkin discovers a vibrant community of diverse people with compelling stories to tell.