Many people don’t know that Hook Head has two harbours.
Slade habour is the easily recognisable one as it’s still in use and has a man-made structure. The other one is Ba Bheag, located on the estuary side of the peninsula it was used for many years by families from Churchtown because of it’s sheltered location. Another main factor is that for small boats propelled by oars going round the headland at the lighthouse is taxing and dangerous most of the time due to the turbulent waters and strong currents therefore it was better to use this location to moor the boat to access the estuary side of the peninsula.
If you look carefully along the top of the beach you may be able to see the five mooring points that were used. The winch next to the path down to the beach was a later addition.