Whales Breaching at Hook Head

November marks the beginning of whale watching season off the Hook Peninsula. Back in the winter of 2010, there were reports of a number of Fin whales and a Humpback spotted off the coast at Hook Head. The whales have made a welcome return every year since, the Humpback becoming particularly associated with our area.

The red balcony at the top of Hook Lighthouse makes an ideal viewing point with binoculars or you can take a chartered whale watching boat trip.

Humpback whales are amongst the largest animals on earth, growing up to 16 metres in length and weighing up to 40 tons. Experts have recently located a breeding ground for the ‘Irish’ Humpback whales in the Cape Verde islands. This means they travel nearly 5,000km every year, through some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes to get to our rich feeding grounds. Which makes the sight of one breaching the waters here even more remarkable