Ireland Days Seven-Nine
There's more!
Day Seven- Kinsale and Cork! We got an early start in Kinsale, stopped at Charles Fort to gaze at the ocean, walked around all the tiny little streets, visited a couple of bookstores. That town is soooooo crowded with tourists, we were definitely glad we weren't actually staying there! It started to rain, so we finished up our wandering just as the rain really got started.
Drove over to Cork, which we had formed some very unfair and unflattering opinions of on our previous Ireland vacation years ago. Our first stop was the Butter Museum, given our long-running joke about regretting not going there on our last visit. It was a great respite from the rain, even though it's basically a half hour long visit and then you're done. A good 10-15 minutes of that visit is watching a video about Kerrygold's history, which actually was more fascinating than you'd think! The rain let up by the time we were done with the museum, and we found a nice little brewery for lunch. The sun came out and we walked around the streets of Cork, and discovered that on our last visit we totally missed the nice part of the city! It was actually lovely.
Back to Youghal. We walked down to a local pub for dinner on their outside patio, saw a couple of gorgeous rainbows, and got back to our room in time to watch the latest episode of Love Island (watching Love Island in real time was honestly a highlight of this trip for me).
Day Eight- Our original plan was to drive around and stop at multiple stone circles. We went to the most well-known circle first, the Dromberg Stone Circle, which was totally gorgeous. Up on a remote hill, with views out to the ocean. You could really imagine life in ancient times here. We tried to go to the next circle on our list, but ended up at a point where we would have had to park in a farmer's driveway and trudge through their fields, and we got the distinct impression that Irish farmers aren't keen on people trudging through their land. It does not seem like Ireland has the same customs and laws as the UK for people just walking all over everyone's land. So we abandoned this effort and went to Clonakilty, a gem of a little town. We got a nice outdoors pub lunch, shopped at the local bookstore, and called it a day. Traffic was a beast on the way back to Youghal, we probably would have stopped somewhere else along the way if we hadn't been sitting in traffic, but it was a long drive and we were pretty tired, so that was it for the day. Managed to snag a booking for early dinner outside on the patio at a local restaurant, and then enjoyed a nice quiet sit outside on the patio at our b&b.
Day Nine- We drove a short way over to Ardmore, a nearby town, and walked along their famous cliff walk. It was a gorgeous walk, the views were stunning. Some nice old ruins related to St. Declan (who apparently pre-dated St. Patrick but got none of the press or holidays).
After Ardmore we went back to Youghal to explore the medieval church. The medieval graveyard was closed, but we snuck in because we can't pass up a chance to walk through a medieval graveyard. Enjoyed a low key light lunch with a few too many Guinnesses in an outdoor pub patio, then went back to nap it off at our b&b. We made it back out for a dinner that evening, and that was the close of our time in Youghal.
Day Seven- Kinsale and Cork! We got an early start in Kinsale, stopped at Charles Fort to gaze at the ocean, walked around all the tiny little streets, visited a couple of bookstores. That town is soooooo crowded with tourists, we were definitely glad we weren't actually staying there! It started to rain, so we finished up our wandering just as the rain really got started.
Drove over to Cork, which we had formed some very unfair and unflattering opinions of on our previous Ireland vacation years ago. Our first stop was the Butter Museum, given our long-running joke about regretting not going there on our last visit. It was a great respite from the rain, even though it's basically a half hour long visit and then you're done. A good 10-15 minutes of that visit is watching a video about Kerrygold's history, which actually was more fascinating than you'd think! The rain let up by the time we were done with the museum, and we found a nice little brewery for lunch. The sun came out and we walked around the streets of Cork, and discovered that on our last visit we totally missed the nice part of the city! It was actually lovely.
Back to Youghal. We walked down to a local pub for dinner on their outside patio, saw a couple of gorgeous rainbows, and got back to our room in time to watch the latest episode of Love Island (watching Love Island in real time was honestly a highlight of this trip for me).
Day Eight- Our original plan was to drive around and stop at multiple stone circles. We went to the most well-known circle first, the Dromberg Stone Circle, which was totally gorgeous. Up on a remote hill, with views out to the ocean. You could really imagine life in ancient times here. We tried to go to the next circle on our list, but ended up at a point where we would have had to park in a farmer's driveway and trudge through their fields, and we got the distinct impression that Irish farmers aren't keen on people trudging through their land. It does not seem like Ireland has the same customs and laws as the UK for people just walking all over everyone's land. So we abandoned this effort and went to Clonakilty, a gem of a little town. We got a nice outdoors pub lunch, shopped at the local bookstore, and called it a day. Traffic was a beast on the way back to Youghal, we probably would have stopped somewhere else along the way if we hadn't been sitting in traffic, but it was a long drive and we were pretty tired, so that was it for the day. Managed to snag a booking for early dinner outside on the patio at a local restaurant, and then enjoyed a nice quiet sit outside on the patio at our b&b.
Day Nine- We drove a short way over to Ardmore, a nearby town, and walked along their famous cliff walk. It was a gorgeous walk, the views were stunning. Some nice old ruins related to St. Declan (who apparently pre-dated St. Patrick but got none of the press or holidays).
After Ardmore we went back to Youghal to explore the medieval church. The medieval graveyard was closed, but we snuck in because we can't pass up a chance to walk through a medieval graveyard. Enjoyed a low key light lunch with a few too many Guinnesses in an outdoor pub patio, then went back to nap it off at our b&b. We made it back out for a dinner that evening, and that was the close of our time in Youghal.