Over 1,500 affected by power cuts

OVER 1,500 households have had power cuts today as heavy winds and rain have led to outages across West Cork.

A yellow wind and rain warning is currently in place in West Cork, and strong gusts have been causing issues throughout the day.

According to the ESB's power outage tracker, power is currently out in parts of Skibbereen, Macroom and Castletownbere, while previous faults in the Bandon area and in Dunmanway have been restored.

Bere Island has also been without power since about 2pm, locals told The Southern Star.

Fastnet Lighthouse have been reporting very high wind speeds since the weather worsened, with wind gusts reaching highs of close to 60km/h.

The weather warning remains in place until 11pm tonight, while Met Eireann are advising that heavy winds will continue until Wednesday at the earliest.