FIRE services in Ireland are battling to stop a wild fire in the picturesque part of the country.
The fire, which started high in a valley on Saturday, has blazed through 350 acres of sheep farmland in the Gougane Barra valley in West Cork, close to the Kerry border.
Speaking to The Irish Post, owner of the Gougane Barra Hotel Neil Lucey said the fire started on Saturday evening, and crept into the valley on Sunday, causing a huge ridge fire.
"It first started burning on Saturday evening, in a very high mountain area and it dispersed itself during Sunday," he said.
"Later in the evening though, it turned back on itself towards Gougane Barra in a large fashion which ended up in a big long ridge fire at one stage and that's when it got a bit scary.
"The fire then crept down towards the lake last night and that was causing a lot of stress.
"There were four different fire crews here last night dealing with it, one of which were attending our neighbours' house as the fire was encroaching on it, while the others were attending Gougane Barra Park which is still not out of danger this morning."
The fire along the ridge above St Finbarr's Oratory in Gougane Barra. (Picture: Gougane Barra Hotel/Facebook)Mr Lucey said the land, a lot of which is farmland, is severely burnt.
"There's a livestock issue also as there's quite a few sheep missing, and the flora and fauna is effected as well.
"The whole nature of the valley has been changed with this fire," he said.
"No one has a clue how it started as the timing is wrong.
"If it was in the middle of the day you could say that possibly someone dropped a cigarette up there, but because it was something that wasn't noticed until 8.30pm on Saturday evening, we have no idea what started it.
"It's still burning at the moment," Mr Lucey said. "But hopefully they get it under control soon."
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