Blogs from County Cork, Ireland, Europe - page 4

Day 9 Schull It looks like we may be heading for a wild day,but who knows. The rain has just eased off after hitting the windows for a while, but at least the wind will blow us along for some time until we turn the headland at Bantry. I would like another day like yesterday where we saw 3000 cyclists heading in the opposite direction on the Rebel Tour of Cork 160km sportive and where the sun was shining on all the boats in Castletownbere harbour at night. Maccarthys Bar was also good last night with the walls plastered with memorabilia and there was even a bacon slicer on the counter and posters everywhere such as the one I posted denying access to Thieves, Fakirs Rogues and Vagabonds. The morning continued overcast but luckily only a ... read more

Monday 4 September About 50 km from Dublin is the Kildare area. The area is famous for patron saint of Ireland, St Brigid, and her messages of the interrelatedness of nature and spirituality dating back to the 5th century. It is known for the original monastery founded by St. Brigid on the site of an oak tree (Kildare meaning 'church of the oak'). This became one of the three most important Christian foundations in Celtic Ireland. Since mummy teaches at a school which is based on the principles of St. Brigid, we thought it would be a good place to visit. Our first stop was the information centre. The lady there was very helpful and gave us a map showing where everything would be, showed us some reproductions from the book of Kildare, and told us ... read more

The Ring of Kerry is a scenic drive around the Iveragh Peninsula in southwest Ireland's County Kerry. After the usual morning routine of an early breakfast, we boarded our bus for this beautiful drive. Because this is a popular tourist destination it was important that we leave early so as not to get caught up in all the bus traffic. As the narrow roads make it difficult for tour coaches to pass, all tour buses run in counterclockwise direction. It is recommended that car owners travel in the opposite direction. We stopped along the way for photo opportunities and stopped for lunch at the Scarriff Inn which had an amazing view. We arrived before many other tour buses so we were able to get in and out within an hour. That early start really payid off. ... read more

Returning to Cobh from our shore excursion to Blarney, Cork and Kinsale, we passed several sites of note. One was the Father Mathew Tower (1846). The tower was built to honour Theobald Matthew (1790-1856), a temperance reformer, popularly known as Father Matthew. Another was the Clonmel Church (The Old Church), a ruin today. The graves of 193 victims of the Lusitania sinking are in the Old Church Cemetery. (Lusitania was torpedoed off the Old Head of Kinsale in May 1915.) I had not known of the connection between Cobh and Lusitania before. In Cobh proper, we stopped to visit St. Colman's Cathedral. The Cathedral Church of St. Colman (Cobh Cathedral) is relatively new as Gothic Cathedrals go. It was designed by architects Edward Pugin and George Ashlin who designed a number of Victorian era churches in ... read more

Westward ho! Sunday 25th June 6.30pm and I'm camped on a patch of grass next to a pub car park, on Old Head of Kinsale, 20 miles south of Cork. Today I went to Fota Wildlife Park, and saw the baby Sumatran Tiger out in public today for the first time. He was suckling; his head hardly distinguishable from his mother’s belly, until she pushed his head away, and he scrambled up to her face to be licked and nuzzled. At the beginning of the Wild Atlantic Way, after Kinsale I met a van like mine, same colour, year, design. The driver said it was the only year of that particular design. They were a couple with a white Scottie dog type terrier. My alter ego. They were Irish, and the first VW I've seen here. ... read more