Long Strand in Song

Long Strand - Where the Wild Waves Run

Beyond the road from quiet Rosscarbery,
The fields fall gently toward the western sun,
Then all at once the land gives way to ocean
On the long shore where the wild waves run.

Dark rounded stones lie scattered by the tideline,
Wet sand holds the evening for a while,
And far across the green-grey breaking water,
The headlands fade along the open sky.

The wind comes rolling from the ocean,
The tide keeps calling to the land,
Every wave begins a journey,
Every road ends on the strand.

Long Strand, Long Strand,
Where the wild waves run,
Under the clouds of Castlefreke,
Under the western sun.

From the dark stones to the white foam,
From the dunes to the open blue,
Long Strand, keep the sound of the ocean
Long after we leave you.

Behind the beach, beyond the bending grasses,
Kilkeran Lake lies sheltered from the foam,
Where moving dunes and quiet coastal waters
Give the wind and wandering birds a home.

The marram holds the sand through changing seasons,
Young dunes rise where sea and dry land meet,
While every storm reshapes the outer shoreline
And leaves another pattern at our feet.

The wind comes rolling from the ocean,
The tide keeps calling to the land,
Every wave begins a journey,
Every road ends on the strand.

Long Strand, Long Strand,
Where the wild waves run,
Under the clouds of Castlefreke,
Under the western sun.

From the dark stones to the white foam,
From the dunes to the open blue,
Long Strand, keep the sound of the ocean
Long after we leave you.

Beyond the dunes, the Castlefreke woods are waiting,
Old walls run beneath the branches there,
Rathbarry keeps the shadow of a stronghold
And stories carried down through salt-filled air.

A cross stands high above the fields and woodland,
Raised in memory beneath the coastal sky,
And far toward Galley Head the lighthouse watches,
A quiet light where ocean roads pass by.

The wind comes rolling from the ocean,
Past every wall and weathered stone,
The years may change the names and pathways,
But the sea keeps its own tone.

Long Strand, Long Strand,
Where the wild waves run,
Under the clouds of Castlefreke,
Under the western sun.

From the dark stones to the white foam,
From the dunes to the open blue,
Long Strand, keep the sound of the ocean
Long after we leave you.

We built small towers from the stones beside us,
Knowing wind or tide would bring them down.
Nothing made by human hands lasts forever,
Yet love leaves signs where none are found.

The sea does not explain its endless motion,
The shore does not ask anyone to stay.
But something in that wide and restless water
Follows every traveller away.

We came when evening opened through the cloudline,
When gold ran softly over stone and foam,
The beach lay wide, the waves were full of thunder,
Yet walking there could make the spirit calm.

We left a few small towers by the shoreline,
Grey stones stacked beneath the fading light,
And carried home the wind of Castlefreke
And waves still breaking somewhere in the night.

Long Strand, Long Strand,
Where the wild waves run,
Under the clouds of Castlefreke,
Under the western sun.

From the dark stones to the white foam,
From the dunes to the open blue,
Long Strand, keep the sound of the ocean
Long after we leave you.

Long Strand, Long Strand,
Let the Atlantic rise,
Carry the light beyond the headlands,
Carry the song across the sky.

Though the tide may take our footsteps
And the stone towers disappear,
The wild waves keep returning,
And their voice remains here.

Stone upon stone,
Wave after wave,
The shore holds nothing forever,
But remembers what we gave.

Where the evening meets the ocean,
Where the wild waves run.