Think of the iconic buildings of Cork, and you may alight upon Shandon church, the Quad at UCC, or Blarney Castle.

But there is a strong case to be made that the most iconic of all lies eight miles off the Cork coast, out in the wild Atlantic.

The lighthouse on Fastnet Rock has withstood the most extreme conditions Mother Nature can lash at it for 121 years, and was described by The Economist as “a monument of man’s gift to mankind”.

The place is awash with history - the most southerly tip of Ireland, the Rock was usually the last sight of the homeland by emigrants heading to America - and thus dubbed ‘Ireland’s teardrop’.

Despite its remoteness, - Fastnet comes from the Irish for ‘lonely rock’ - the stone lighthouse here is a feat of engineering, and remains the tallest and widest anywhere in Ireland or Britain.

The remarkable dot in the ocean is about to come into sharper focus, as the biennial Fastnet Race starts today, involving 470 yachts.

These vessels and their hardy crew will set off from the Isle of Wight on a 700-mile race that uses the Fastnet as a turning point, before the yachts head back to the finishing line in England or, in latter years, Cherbourg in France.

This is the centenary year of the event, as it was 100 years ago, in August, 1925, that the very first Fastnet Race took place.

Remarkably, the winner that year is still afloat. Jolie Brise won the event a record three times in total, as well as winning a Tall Ships Race, and during her charmed life has changed hands at least ten times and survived a fire on board. Presumably, La Jolie Brise restaurant in Baltimore is named in her honour.

Those early races........

© Evening Echo