The N71 between Bantry and Killarney is one of the great mountain roads of the south of Ireland – a route that climbs through the Caha Mountains on the Cork-Kerry border, threading its way through hand-hewn rock tunnels, past Glengarriff and Kenmare, before dropping through the dramatic glacial gap at Moll’s Gap and descending into Killarney. It is a road of extraordinary beauty, and one that commands your full attention even in daylight. After dark, it demands something more.

The figure most commonly associated with the N71 is a woman in white who appears in the road itself – not at the verge, not at a distance, but in the path of oncoming vehicles. Drivers have swerved to avoid her, pulled over, got out and searched. There is never anyone there. She is there and then she is not, and the brevity of the encounter only seems to deepen the unease it leaves behind.