Ireland: Day 8 (Bantry to Kinsale)

Nearly there. We're now up to Friday morning, which is market day in Bantry - so, after checking out and moving the bags to the car, we explored the market, a short walk from the hotel. First though, we said we'd pay a quick trip to Bantry Museum, up some steps on the other side of the square - as advertised in that booklet we'd picked up. It's small - just two rooms, cluttered with stuff of varying age collected by the historical society. But you know, it's very interesting - plenty of local memorabilia, and we were happy to sign the visitors' book and give a small donation.

A stroll around the market also offered some interesting possibilities, and this time we could buy what we were looking at! Indeed, the rain didn't deter us, and an interesting purchase was made. Local markets can be good for finding the unusual.. and that was it for Bantry, as we headed, at a leisurely pace, for Kinsale - the end of the Wild Atlantic Way, and where we were to meet an old college friend of mine for dinner.

Our first stop was in Skibbereen, where I'd seen in the booklet there was a heritage centre, with a famine exhibition that sounded interesting. We found this without difficulty, parking outside, and went to the reception desk - where we were asked whether we wanted to be depressed first, or afterwards. We decided to take our depression first, and were directed to the famine exhibition, to the left.

They're right - this is an excellent exhibit: very informative, quite moving. Skibbereen, it seems, was one of the worst-hit areas, making it an appropriate site for such a display. Information boards, graphs, and videos with actors representing different typical characters of the time, (some with narration by Jeremy Irons, who owns nearby Kilcoe Castle) all combine to tell the saddest of stories.

I knew it was basically caused by potato blight, but never understood the intricacies - now I've had it explained. It seems that food was available for purchase - but, as explained painstakingly in one of the videos, whereas this was all right as a supplement when the poor had a basic diet of potatoes, they could never afford to have potatoes replaced entirely! As for living near the coast, and having a diet of fish.. in one of the great tragedies of the time, thinking this to be a short-lived problem, they pawned their fishing boats to buy food. By the time that was gone, there were still no potatoes to sustain them - the famine lasted for six years, the money ran out, they had no way of getting food.. The population fell by half, between death and emigration, and has hardly increased since. It's a shock to realise that the population of the whole island is still only just over half that of London..

Moving on, we watched a much cheerier video about the nearby Lough Hyne, a marine lake and Ireland's first marine nature reserve. And then had a stroll around the gift shop - an American (by his accent) was researching his genealogy in the corner; they do that here too. After all, this area would have been one of the prime ones for emigration..

And so on to Clonakilty, by which time we were hungry enough for lunch. Market day here too, and oh boy. Helen remarked that this was the first really busy place we'd found in the whole country! What with traffic, and one-way streets, we had some trouble getting to our preferred car park (courtesy of that booklet again). Well, we eventually did, and wandered a bit - unfortunately, we didn't have much of an idea where to eat. The local Londis had some kind of a promotion, a mini red double decker open top bus travelling the streets.. For our part, when we came across O' Donovan's, the menu looked decent and we ate at the self-service there. And afterwards? The traffic had vanished. Huh.

Soon after leaving Clonakilty, we left the main road, taking a secondary road to Kinsale. And so we passed through Timoleague, where we stopped, seeing the sign for the Friary. Free to enter, it's a fascinating ruin - something of a maze as you wander through its existing doorways:

Again, more photos here.

And at the information board at the entrance, you can read about how it was a major centre of learning, until successive waves of English soldiers put paid to that.

Up the road, Timoleague Church is worth a look, with its spiral timeline in the grounds, although we hadn't the energy to climb to see the interior:

Further along the road, we came to Ballinspittle - famous to a generation of Irish people as the home of the infamous "moving statue". She didn't budge for us though..

And so to Kinsale, in a return of brilliant sunshine, and in the midst of what seemed like a classic car rally. We parked in the town's main car park, by the harbour, and paid for a couple of hours' parking - that's all we needed, until the parking restrictions eased for the evening. And we went in search of accommodation.. this, unfortunately, was the very first place where we had trouble in finding it, the first two places sold out for what seemed a large wedding. Third time lucky - trying in the Blue Haven, we were sent two doors down the road to the Old Bank House, also under their ownership. We were glad to discover there was a small lift - and although it was almost twice the price of anywhere else we stayed on this trip, and breakfast was extra, we were glad to have a bed. And the rooms were undoubtedly lovely:

We'd both now about reached the limit of travelling.. after a brief stop to refresh ourselves, we were off to pick my friend up, in Garretstown:

Brought her back into town, where we ate conveniently, and deliciously, in the Blue Haven's Bar & Bistro - quite the most delicious meal I had on the whole trip. And enormous sundaes on the dessert menu:

Bade farewell (for now) to my friend, who got a cab home - and bade farewell to the Wild Atlantic Way, as the next day we were to head inland, and back north..