Off to the city of Kienzle oops I mean the city of Kinsale

We left our B&B in Kenmare at 9:30 a.m. on our way to Waterford with planned stops in Macroom, Kinsale and Midleton.

The reason for the stop in Macroom is to see the ruins of a castle owned by the father of William Penn (who founded Pennsylvania).

Here's the photo we got, not bad for a ruined castle! The ruins are behind this castle hotel. We couldn't get a good photo of the ruins so I thought you would enjoy this nice new castle.

Our next stop was Kinsale, a small town on the southern coast. We were trying to get there by 11:15 a.m. to do a walking tour with a guide highly recommended by Rick Steves (our guru). The GPS was telling us we were going to get there just about the time the tour would start. Well it just so happened half the farmers in county Cork were out riding around on their 10 mph tractors on every narrow road we turned on to. Well we just downshifted that VW Golf and passed them on the narrow roads like the locals do! As we flew into Kinsale 10 minutes after the tour was supposed to start we drove right by the tour guide. We found a parking lot and went back to where we saw him and asked to join the tour a mere 15 minutes after it started. We didn't miss much and he caught us up to what he had already talked about.

Here we are, two happy tourists with Barry Moloney our tour guide. Was it worth driving like a local to go on his tour, you ask? You bet it was! We not only had a great tour with him and 12 others but after the tour the three of us talked quite a bit about Rick Steves. He has been on his show several times and really enjoys his company when he visits Ireland. Barry also recommended a great lunch spot for us. He said it's not fancy but lots of the locals eat there. Well I'm driving like a local so we may as well eat with them. We did and had a fantastic, reasonably priced meal.

Photo of Barry in action talking about the city.

The sign on this place reads The Giant's Cottage. The Kinsale giant lived in the late 1700's. He was eight feet three inches tall and was the largest man known to be living at that time. When a London circus owner found out about him, the owner came to Kinsale and convinced him to join the circus. He did and lived in England and died at the age of 47, buried in Bristol and is know over there as the Bristol Giant.

The stone wall in the very back of the photo was built at the edge of the water. Everything in the for ground was under the water and part of the bay. The wall was built by the Normans in the 16th century. In the 19th century shale was quarried from the nearby mountains and used as land fill to expand the city.

These alleyways were once slipways that lead down to the ships. They are wide enough to roll down a barrel filled with provisions to waiting ships. In the 17th and 18th centuries most ships leaving from England or Europe would be provisioned in Kinsale before they left on their journeys. Alexander Selkirk (the book Robinson Crusoe is based on) left from Kinsale.

One last thing about Kinsale, it was 10 miles off the cost of Kinsale that the ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U boat in 1915 killing almost 1,200; many were women and children. The explosion was heard in the city.

On to something lighter. Our next stop was in Midleton and a visit to the Jameson distillery. I'm thinking about signing up for the academy.

The tour was fun and informative and included a sample of their product at the end of the tour. Gave me courage to go out and deal with those tractors again.

 

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