Cork & Kinsale to Clonakilty

Tom and I awoke this morning to wonderful sunshine after the hard, heavy rains of last night – I couldn’t resist taking a photo out of our bedroom window overlooking the fields and seeing the mountains in the distance. Our host, Eleanor, treated us to a full Irish Breakfast. After introducing us to her husband, Sean, we all spent a pleasant hour in conversation about a myriad number of topics including family, travels, Irish weather, politics, Eleanor’s Irish Dancing hobby, skiing, and farming. Sean was born on the property, lived there his whole life, and runs the farm. He has Irish cousins in the USA – mostly police officers in Boston. Tom and I reluctantly packed and said goodbye after a too short a stay with them – and then headed south in the trusty Skoda Citicar.

Cork City, on the banks of the River Lee, lies just inland from Ireland’s southwest coast; is a university city with its centre on an island in the River Lee; is connected to the sea by the huge Cork Harbour; and is the 3rd most populace city in Ireland. Cork was originally a monastic settlement, reputedly founded in the 6th century. Cork achieved an urban character at some point between 915 and 922 when Viking settlers founded a trading port. It has been proposed that, like Dublin, Cork was an important trading center in the global Scandinavian trade network. We only spent a short time in Cork City as it is Sunday, and the city was virtually closed. We did some exploring mostly in the Huguenot city center – now an area of small shops and cafes. Tom and I did a quick tour of the cathedral in between Catholic Sunday masses, and decided to move on to our 2^nd destination today along the southwest coast.

When we arrived in Kinsale, originally a medieval fishing port, the town was filled with cars and people enjoying the beautiful harbor and the colorful shops on the tiny winding streets. Kinsale has been a center of population, trade and fishing for centuries. The combined attractions of a sheltered harbor, fertile land and abundant fisheries were not lost on the invading Anglo-Normans who in the 13^th Century displaced the local Irish to establish control and create a medieval walled town on the shoreline. They forged trade links with England and Europe and became prominent in the wine trade. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries Kinsale was an important naval base and ships were built here using timbers from the surrounding oak forests.

A short distance away is the Old Head of Kinsale – it was close to here that the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915 with a loss of over 1500 lives.

We were fortunate to quickly find a parking space in the centrum, and enjoyed our stroll through the town. There were shops to discover (yes, I made some purchases), then a visit to St. Multose Church. The Norman architecture Church was built in the 12^th Century with a stone doorway, and has marks in the stone from Cromwell’s soldiers sharpening their swords on each side of the front door. In the cemetery behind the church, there are two large graves containing victims of the Lusitania.

It was now time for Tom and I to make our way to Clonakilty, where we would be spending tonight and tomorrow night in a “country cottage”. When we arrived in the town, we parked near the city center, to take a look around before we got ourselves settled in the cottage.

I heard Celtic music coming from one of the pubs – it was the Tigh de Barra – the “mecca for musicians” that I had read about. We stepped inside, and Tom had a very hard time dragging me away from the music – packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people, standing room only !

We actually had some difficulty finding the cottage, and I was a little concerned when we found the steep rutted driveway, and saw the cluttered open shed between the owner’s house and the cottage. Our host, Brigid, wasn’t there but her son let us into the cottage.  

It was actually quite charming inside, and our windows looked out onto a beautiful Irish garden. From the driveway we could see the sea ! Brigid’s husband Tom soon arrived and introduced himself, and in chatting, we discovered that he and Brigid are musicians. He will be performing tomorrow night at the Tigh de Barra – we must come – he will loan me his guitar so I can join in. Hmmmm . . . we will see about that ! ! !

p.s. Our wee cottage not only has a washing machine and dishwasher, but when I went to take a shower I discovered a towel warmer ! Such a luxury !