Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland

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  Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland
Saturday, September 13, 2008

Chris, Samantha and I left ahead of the others and stopped for lunch in the lovely little town of Kinsale.  On a tip from my friend Ayelet we hunted for a pub with the  word monk in its name.  After a short hunt we asked at the info centre to find that the mad monk had closed five years earlier.  We went and checked out the pub that had replaced it and had a lovely meal.  Then we headed on to the cottage.  What a lovely spot, on the hill above the beach at Inchydoney with the gorgeous countryside spreading out in all other directions.  We took a walk to the beach and headed home in time to meet the others arriving. 

We spent a couple of lovely days with the whole family, Siobhan spoiling us by cooking all the dinners and enjoying some lovely walks through the narrow walled country lanes. The weather was drizzly for much of the weekend but we still had a lovely time.  We came in on Saturday and enjoyed watching the All Blacks beat the Aussies with a fellow kiwi and our Irish hosts

Sam at the model railway village

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At the end of the weekend Ger, Siobhan and family headed home and took Cassandra too.  We farewelled them  and continued to relax.  The weather improved dramatically and we began to have some lovely clear days.  We went for some long walks, as well as taking a big drive up to the Ring of Kerry.  We didn't drive around the whole ring, but rather enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the way and at the beginning. 

The most entertaining element was having rented a GPS with the car, following its much appreciated advice on the quickest, or most direct route.  It seemed regardless of which way we asked it, it tended to take us via the most back road route, mostly along roads with a large strip of grass growing down the middle with no sign of traffic anywhere.  Often after several miles of this driving on backroads barely wide enough to fit our car we would come back out on the same road we left, but the GPS had somehow worked out it could save us a few metres by sending us this back way.  Not only did this allow us to have a huge laugh and see some of the most beautiful and secluded countryside that Ireland has to offer, but we also found some of the best crops of roadside wild blackberrries there were.

The railway village

When Ger, Siobhan and the kids returned we headed up to Skibbereen and then with a plan to head to the large saltwater lake nearby.  We gave up on using a GPS and decided to rely on our own Ger PS.  After about two hours of driving and once again visiting some lovely Irish grass-centred rural roads, we decided to admit defeat and have lunch in Skibbereen before returning home.  All in all a fun day regardless of never reaching our planned destination.

The weather was really beautiful for our last couple of days at Inchydonney and we spent time at the beach, the kids digging endless holes and we relaxed alot.  We enjoyed a couple of evenings of entertainment at the great Clonakilty pubs.  It was international guitar week and we enjoyed some local talent alongside international acts (our preference being the more local talent from Ireland and England)

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Siobhan and emma	The model village	model village	1-model village
Samantha and Eion	Ger scaring the ducks	The Ger-PS looking concerned for good reason	the kids hanging at Inchydoney
Ger working Eoin supervising	Deck getting spruced up	Samantha the worker	A truly beautifully stained deck
on the way to Blarney	Thanks GPS, more blackberries in the wilderne	zack enjoying the scenery	sam on a berry hunt
Are you sure GPS?	views on the way home from Kerry	scenery homeward bound	Our car
A druid	The Druids view	back to County Cork	Our route was very light on traffic
killarney national park	Park	Killarney National Park	1-Killarney National Park
Killqarney National Park	Killarney National Park. A little cool?	National Park	The Park
1-National Park	1-Park	Big leprechaun!	Sam and Chris overlooking Killarney Nat Park
views over park	park	berry picking in the wilderness: Thanks GPS	1-killarney
early morn heading to ring of kerry	killarney	Good morning Ireland	Is this really the main road GPS?
on the way to ring of kerry	heading to ring of kerry	beautiful lanes	lovely view
great castle	the castle	Killarney	1-Killarney
sam and zack at Inchydoney	zack	clare and sam	chris and the expanse of inchydoney beach
sam in her element	What, cold,? never!	clonakilty sam and chris	Top tip, rent a small car, narrow roads!
beautiful old stone walls	ruins	heading to Clonakilty	James takes on Chris
Samantha and James	James trying to escape Clare	Kis busy on Inchydoney beach	Samantha in the hole
James too	Cass	Hmm a little on the sandy side	Clare about to take a walk in Inchydoney
On a berry hunt	beautiful Inchydoney	at the causeway	Who me, blackberries, never??!
stretching or hunting berries? Causeway	Inchydoney walks, beautiful!	YAY	lovely lanes in Inchydoney
lovely lanes to walk through	Kinsale	kinsale	clare and sam, outside ex-mad monk pub
trying to look sensible in ex mad monk	being himself in ex mad monk	1-kinsale	on the way to Clonakilty
heading to Clonakilty

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