The setting may be relaxed, a handful of souls chatting around a campfire as wood smoke curls skyward, but the so-called eco-warriors who have arrived in east Cork are determined. Come hell or high water, they plan to stop the ESB erecting pylons on Great Island.
They've set up camps at Ballynoe, near Cobh, and in a wood at Saleen, outside Midleton. Both are on the proposed 25-kilometre route which will bring 220KV lines from Aghada power station, across Great Island and Cork Harbour, to Ringaskiddy.
Although the Ballynoe camp is there longer, Saleen is, according to the activists, "in the front line". And although still in construction, is arguably more extensive, with some spectacularly high tree-houses roofing the site.
"Because pines don't have big branches coming out like hardwoods, we've had to build the houses between three trees rather than in one tree," says Paul, who describes himself as "a tree dweller from Everywheresville". Surnames aren't forthcoming within the group.
The tree-houses are just one line of defence against the ESB proposal. The other is a tunnel, currently 20 feet long but burrowing daily into Clarke's Hill, where the protesters say the ESB plans to fell trees.
"It's the first such tunnel in Ireland," says Fergus, from east Cork, who returned from England where he took part in protests at Manchester Airport and Devon when he heard about the ESB plans for Great Island. "The ESB plan is crazy. The pylons are obviously a huge visual blight on the landscape and then there's the health risk."
John, originally from London but living in Dublin, produces a laminated, one-inch ordinance survey map. "This is the route of the pylons," he says, pointing out a thick, black line snaking around the perimeter of Great Island.
"And this is the underwater option," he adds, as he traces a much shorter route across Cork Harbour from Aghada to Raffeen. "The ESB say they can't put it underwater because of the risk from ships' anchors," a theory the protesters dispute.
According to Fergus, the cable could easily be buried in the seabed to protect it from anchors - it has already happened with some pipelines serving the IFI plant outside Cobh, while the ESB already has underwater lines to Spike Island.
"The other argument the ESB comes up with is the extra cost but the Pirelli Report, which they commissioned, looked at out-of-date, oil-filled cables for putting the lines underwater at a cost of £19 million. New technology could do it for £7 million to £8 million."
Both the Saleen and Ballynoe camps were set up when some local anti-pylon protesters contacted activists at the Glen of the Downs protest in Co Wicklow, and invited them to come to Co Cork to help on the anti-pylon campaign.
The Clarke's Hill camp is about a quarter of a mile behind Saleen village. Locals are beginning to help out with supplies like tarpaulins and pallets. The camp is currently home to about 12 protesters but numbers fluctuate.
"We've have had a pretty international flavour, both here and in Ballynoe, with an Australian, two Spanish, some French, Dutch and Germans - but people move on."
The group hopes to set up another two camps along the ESB route but that depends on having the numbers to sustain them.
The ESB rejects the protesters' arguments. National transmission asset manager Mr Bernard O'Reilly pointed out that the company engaged environmental consultants to advise on where the pylons should be placed.
He said the company would double the circuits on the first 19 pylons from Raffeen to Cow's Cross after consulting landowners, resulting in just one new pylon in the area. The most recent research also showed there was no link between pylons and health.
"The consensus on the health issue from bodies like the EU Working Group on Electro-Magnetic Fields and the National Cancer Institute in the US is that there is little evidence to show any connection between health and EMF," he said
Mr O'Reilly also rejected the underwater option, saying that putting the cable in the seabed would pose huge logistical problems for repair and the ESB could give no guarantee it would not be damaged by ships' anchors.
"The total cost of putting the cable underground would be around £40 million. That's £20 million more than the overland option and even then, we would still have the problems of repair."
Fergus says they will stay as long as it takes. "If the ESB want to exercise their authority and evict us there is nothing we can do to stop them but, hopefully, they'll realise it will prove very expensive and that they just can't dictate to people."
