Cork

 Our trip today was to Cork around 20kms from here. Arrived and parked the Sportage in the first carpark we came to in the central area but at €4.50 per hour or part thereof made a mental note to self that if the opportunity arises should move it somewhere else.

Cork isn’t the tidiest city or town that we have been to nor is it the prettiest.

Found the English Market, which is what we would call a typical French or Italian market, and strolled through it admiring the breads, cheeses, meats, vegetables etc. but with wallet firmly tucked away in the pocket.

Then it was onto the Tourist Information Centre to see what was on offer & found that there was very little  - a historical area and the Marina Market and as the market required use of the car it was just the excuse needed to get the car out of the car park so returned and paid the equivalent of $NZD17.80 for an hour and  a quarter parking and drove to the market.

The market is in a very industrial area (no marina in sight) and consisted of numerous food stalls set out in a very large warehouse. As it was now lunchtime we each chose a stuffed potato and took out another mortgage on the house to pay for them ($NZD69.50).

What we have noticed is that food and coffee is roughly the same cost in each country but set in the different currency e.g a coffee here €4.50 in NZD $4.50, a pub meal here €20, a food court meal in NZ $20.

After lunch we returned to the central area and reparked the car, this time in a more economical parking building, $NZD16 for 3 hours, and strolled to the historical area and found the site of the old Butter Exchange where firkins of butter were traded in the building now named The Firkin Crane, crane because the firkins were loaded by crane, with a firkin being the equivalent of 1/4 of a barrel or between 25-32kg

The exchange in its day was the largest butter market in the world.

There being nothing more to see we returned down to the city passing a church which was more like a Roman theatre or similar and started the drive home.

We continue to be blessed with hot weather and hope it continues for a couple more weeks.

Tomorrow we move out of Midleton and travel further west stopping at Blarney Castle en route.

Photos from Cobh

 

They Wouldn’t Would They?

We travelled to Cobh today a relatively short distance away.

We parked in the Cathedral car park and paid the parking fee (€12) online however on walking out of the parking lot there were clear signs - Display your ticket or you will be clamped - and it was then that I realised we had nothing to display so we left the car where it was and wondered whether we would get back later in the day and find we were clamped.

They wouldn’t would they?

Cobh (pronounced Cove) is built onto the slope of Great Island in Cork Harbour 15 miles from Cork. The towering St Colman’s Cathedral, French Gothic in style, stands at the top of the hill overlooking the tall brightly coloured buildings of Cobh and the dockside of the most important port of immigration in the country.

The port was called Queenstown, renamed following a visit from Queen Victoria in 1849, until it reverted back to its Irish name in 1922.

Cobh's long maritime history includes the world's first yacht club, the Royal Cork Yacht Club established in 1720, the first steamship to sail across the Atlantic, the Sirius, sailed from Cobh in 1838.

Cobh was the last port of call for the Titanic on her tragic maiden voyage and was where survivors of the Lusitania were brought after the ship was torpedoed by German U-Boats off the Old Head of Kinsale in 1915. 150 victims of the Lusitania are buried in graves in the Old Church just north of Cobh.

Yet what Cobh is most associated with is the mass exodus from Ireland during the 19th Century. Once called "the saddest place in all of Ireland", Cobh was the embarkation port of some 2.5 million Irish emigrants fleeing famine and poverty between 1848 and 1950. 

Though a town with a sorrowful past, Cobh is a vibrant hub of activity and interest. A quaint town of narrow streets, winding up steep hills, it has a number of old-fashioned pubs, seems to be a popular spot for sailing and there are harbour cruises around Haulbowline Island and the former prison of Spike Island.

It was Spike Island that we had chosen to visit today. A 15 minute (max) ferry across the harbour and we were on Spike, initially a monastery circa 635, then a prison from 1650s, a fortress from 1779, back to a prison in 1847, a military base in 1938 and back to a prison in 1985 to 2004.

We chose to walk the 2.4 km trail around the island which allowed us to see views of Cobh and also the harbour which was described as the second largest harbour in the world behind Sydney. 

After lunch we joined a guided tour but the tour leader while she gave details of the history of the island was very verbose and seemed to prefer to talk rather than guide so we left the tour and went and had a quick look at the museum, quick as our ferry was to depart in 20 minutes and we had to walk back down from the fort area to the wharf. 

We returned to the mainland, some 3.5 hours after we left it to find that the crowds had increased significantly and there were now musicians playing to the throngs.

It had a great atmosphere enhanced by the fact that the liner, Majestic Princess, was at dock being at its 2nd stop on a 9 stop, 12 day cruise around Great Britain and a goodly number of its 3000 passengers were on shore.

After walking through streets, listening to the musician we returned to the car wondering had they or hadn’t they and found thankfully they hadn’t.

A short drive back to Midleton ended a highly enjoyable day.

Significant IT issues today so have had to use a red font and with photos to follow 

 

 

 

 

The Long Way Round

 After thanking Paul, our host at Fethard we set off for Midleton via Dungavan.

Has anyone had the feeling that, even though you have set your GPS, you are going in the wrong direction?

Everytime we came to a corner where there was a signpost the signs indicated that we were getting closer and closer to Kilkenny which is inland whereas Dungarvan is a fishing town past Waterford. After around 30 of the suggested 55kms we expected to travel we decided to recheck the GPS by comparing it with Google Maps and in doing so discovered that there are two Dungarvans in Ireland, one in County Kilkenny which we were heading for and another in County Waterford which we wanted to head for!!!

With that knowledge we reset the GPS and found we were some 90kms away from our desired destination so what was supposed to be a 55km journey we had turned it into a 120 km tour.

Finally we arrived at Dungarvan, parked up and enjoyed the walk through the central city and found a pub that was serving Seafood Chowder for lunch.

After lunch we walked through the town and out to the harbour edge and strolled back around the harbour to our car and started the drive to Midleton and our accommodation for the next 3 nights.

No address was provided so we were relying on the EIRcode for the property which we put into the GPS - we were taken up roads in various states of repair, some no wider than the car and after about 15 minutes and 11 kms after leaving Midleton town the GPS announced we had arrived at our destination so we pulled into this large rural residence however it didn’t look like the photo of the property we had booked. I knocked on the door without a response and in desperation loaded the EIRcode into Google Maps which suggested we had 350m to drive so off we went and sure enough in 350m we turned into the drive of another large rural residence and found the key that gave us access.

After unpacking we drove back to a pub in Midleton for dinner and a walk through the town before safely traversing the lanes back to home.

It’s Not A Problem!

 Of the towns that we have visited in the area Kilkenny has been the pick of them as the city centre is more compact, there are some nice shop frontages to admire, it has a nice feel to it, it is bustling and it has the Castle so it is no surprise that we returned today and spent about 6 hours there.

Something we noticed were the quaintly named lanes or passageways running off the Main Street.

After lunch, in The Fig Tree, we visited the Castle which sits dramatically on a hill towards the top of the city area and looks over the River Nore.

The original castle was built by the Earl of Pembroke during the first decade of the 13th century and it later became the principal Irish residence of the powerful Butler family for almost 600 years.

The Butler ownership began when James, 3rd Earl of Ormond purchased the castle in c.1391 and lasted until 1967 when Arthur, 6th Marquess of Ormonde presented it to the people of Kilkenny in return for a token payment of £50.

The family sold almost all the content of the castle in a 10 day auction in 1935. The buildings have been in the care of the office of Public Works since 1969.

The visit allows you to walk through various rooms some of which were:

State Dining Room 

Tapestry Room

Library

Picture Gallery Wing

In the garden there was a fountain which if you were lucky might spray you with some cooling water - ever since we arrived in London we have enjoyed superb weather with temperatures around 22-28 and today was one of the 28s.

If we had an Euro for every time a shop/cafe/restaurant server said “it’s not a problem” to either us or someone in our earshot our trip would be paid for! The thing is that it is genuinely not a problem.

Tomorrow we move further west.

A Sly Fox

 We set off this morning to the Hook Peninsula stopping at Carrick-on-Sur for morning tea.

Outside the cafe was a plaque honouring the exploits of Sean Kelly, one of the worlds greatest road cyclists who had many successes (193) in the Classic Tours during the 1980s and who hails from this area

We choose the drive to Passage East, ferry to Ballyhack and then the drive to the peninsula route rather than the drive all the way around the top of the harbour route which saves about 20 minutes each way

The purpose of the trip was to see the Hook Lighthouse, the oldest operational lighthouse in the world and which has been protecting mariners along this portion of the Irish coast since the 5th century.

The area was inhabited by missionaries from the 5th century and they lit a fire on the headland to warn the ships and in the 12th century the lighthouse was built and the “light” was from the burning of coal at the top of the lighthouse. Imagine carrying coal up 4 stories of steep stairs in a narrow stairwell all through the night to keep the fire burning!

The light can be seen from 25kms away even though it is a 75w LED bulb due to use of a modern version of a Fresnel lens 

The views from the top of the tower across the harbour and also the flat lands of the peninsula are superb particularly on the clear warm (apart from the cold wind) day we had today

Leaving the lighthouse behind we drove back to Ballyhack, caught the ferry and then drove to Waterford home of Waterford Crystal and a town Sherry had stayed at last year on her whistle stop trip with Jodi.

She showed me some of the things that had caught her eye and we had dinner in a pub that had treated her royally when she dined there alone on that trip.

There is a superb clock museum in Waterford, Irish Museum of Time, which houses over 600 clocks/watches of different ages and styles and in March this year it extended its offering by displaying over 400 cuckoo clocks it had purchased for £1m in 2024.

What, to me, is special about the museum is that the pieces, prior to the cuckoos being added, were mainly donated or leant by a small group of enthusiasts. I believe that if the exhibition was professionally valued the outcome could be eye watering!

The downside to the day was it took 30 minutes to drive 400m while exiting Waterford to get home - bloody road works.

Got back to our accommodation around 8.20 to be greeted by a Fox drinking out of a container on the back lawn!

It’s a Long Way to Tipperary …

 …from New Zealand but just 22kms from Fethard so we made it our first stop this morning.

In truth Tipperary is better in the song than in the flesh as it was a rather drab place at least along the main street where we walked.

Though there was a colourful barrel of flowers on one corner

We then drove to Clonmel, the largest town in County Tipperary, approximately 20kms south east of Tipperary arriving around midday.

Clonmel is relatively typical of the towns that we have seen so far being dominated by a church and in this case also by a river.

The river Suir flows along the southern edge of the town

while the church is more in the centre of the town

At the time we visited, around 1pm, there was a mass in progress being attended by a handful.

The gent at the Tourist Information kiosk had suggested that a trip to St Patrick’s Well just outside the town was worth visiting.

The following was found on Google:

St Patrick’s Well is situated in a tranquil valley to the west of Clonmel, close to the village of Marlfield in County Tipperary. It is a picturesque setting for this holy site, which has been revered for centuries. There are over 3,000 holy wells in Ireland and St Patrick’s Well is thought to be one of the largest. Holy wells are sacred places where natural springs or man-made hollows that collect water are thought to have a religious significance because of their association with a saint. Many are thought to have been originally places of pre-Christian worship and tradition which were then co-opted as Christian sites following the conversion of the local population.

Legend has it that St Patrick stopped off at this valley on his journey through South Tipperary and Waterford where he reputedly converted the King of Munster to Christianity at the Rock of Cashel. St Patrick was said to have stopped here to bathe and baptise local people. Unfortunately, however, it is unlikely that Patrick was ever in this part of Ireland, as he does not mention travelling to the south of the country in his writings Confessio or Epistola. In fact, the story of Patrick’s journey in Munster comes from a source written nearly 500 years after Patrick’s death, the 10th-century Life of St Declan. Despite this, St Patrick’s association with the well is still strong today.

The well has been enclosed by a circular wall. The natural water which bubbles up is channeled through two narrow stone cut openings that appear to be possible flumes from an early medieval mill. The water descends into a large, shallow pool, from where it flows into a narrow stream, a tributary of the River Suir, which flows nearby to the south of the site.

A small sandstone cross stands on a small island in the pool, and this is probably one of the oldest visible archaeological features at St Patrick’s Well. This cross is thought to date to the 8th century. It was originally positioned close to the church on marshy ground, but a programme of renovation and reconstruction was carried out at this site in the 1960s and the cross was moved to its current position.

The roofless ruin of the stone church is likely to date to the 15th or 16th century. There is a historical record of the Abbot of Inishlounaght being buried at the church in 1617. Inislounaght was once a thriving Cistercian abbey that was founded in the 12th century nearby at Marlfield, but there are no traces left of it today. However, some architectural fragments may have been brought from the abbey to St Patrick’s Well and incorporated into the parish church. Within the church you can see some architectural fragments and an altar tomb dating from 1622, dedicated to the White family.

The 5th century stone cross with the 15th century church behind

The stone cross

The actual well

Looking into the remains of the Church

We then drove to Cashel, the town we visited for dinner last night to have a look at the Rock of Cashel which is one of Ireland’s most spectacular archeological sites. Over the centuries there have been numerous religious as well as royal “events” happening on this site, one of the earliest being in 978 when Brian Boru was crowned here as High King of Ireland

A question: If Ireland is the agricultural country that it is reputed to be how is it that for dinner tonight we purchased broccolini sourced from Spain and potatoes sourced from Egypt? Is it sacrilege for Ireland, renowned for its love of potatoes, to import them - just asking for a friend!