It's been a busy, fun summer so far and we were still looking forward to our BIG Scotland trip in late July when Sam came home from work and said: "I've got next Friday (3 July) off so, let's go somewhere." Quick~ be spontaneous. Where should we go? IRELAND! Of course...
A week notice and a hour on the internet and we were booked for a short break in Cork County at a nice little cottage near Mount Kid (southern Ireland to the west of Cork City by an hour, in between Skibbereen and Ballydehob).
A quick flight over to Cork and an hour drive through the pea-soup (fog) and we arrived at our adorable home for the next 4 days.
It didn't take long for us to explore a bit and we instantly fell in love with the owners: Chef Chris & Pattie (part-time faerie),
their four-legged children "Pepper" and "Alice",
standing stones and their verdant gardens which no doubt hid large populations of faerie-folk, leprechauns and newts (which were caught by the girls)!
After a good night's rest, we were ready to see a bit of Cork, even if it meant being a bit of the cliche tourist: Off to Blarney Castle for the gift of gab! Sam questioned me as to why I needed such a gift as it was already quite evident to him (through listening to all conversations with my sisters) that I had no need of it. There wasn't a single native Irishman to be found on the castle grounds or in the surrounding village. So, in the interest of actually visiting Ireland, we opted for a quick sprint to the stone and a few interesting sites near the castle. Kelly quickly smooched the Blarney Stone (hand-sanitizer anyone?).
Sam disappeared into a cave with Sandy and Molly (which resulted in loud wailing from our own little banshee after she tripped in the mud and got her trousers got wet) and we were off to spend the rest of our day in the city of Cork. I really loved Cork -for anyone debating where to go in Ireland, I'd definitely recommend Cork over Dublin any day of the year.
Cork is termed 'The Rebel Country' due to its independent spirit and rivalry with Dublin. It also is home to both Beamish and Murphy's Stout breweries in the city. It has a university, a large market, pubs and a pretty little river. We had an enjoyable afternoon there with Beamish to wet our whistle, a little shopping and then a good stroll around the indoor market where we picked up some fantastic fresh fish and local prawns for tea.
Editor's note: there will be a voice reference in the next section for which a little context may be necessary. If you have seen the movie "Finding Nemo", there is a scene in the Dentist's aquarium where Nemo has to swim through a ring of bubbles which look like fire. The resident fish call it the ring of fire and it is announced in a deep, dramatic, echoing voice: RING OF FIRE!!! I only explain this because Sam used this voice every. single. time. that we mentioned the Ring of Kerry. So, every time you see Ring of Kerry, feel free to use the Nemo aquarium voice :)The next day, we decided to head north to Killarney and possibly drive some of the
(*aquarium voice*) Ring of Kerry. Our first stop was the little harbor town of Bantry for the Friday Market. What a market! Loads of fresh fish, chocolatiers, fresh sausages, veg, trinkets and Sam's favorite: Gypsies.
It was really nice and we soon had provisions to carry us on our journey to
(that's right everyone): the Ring of Kerry! We drove through some really nice country in North Cork and South Kerry counties and stopped for a picnic at the Bonane Heritage Park.
This park boasts a Iron Age fort, stone circle and abandoned stone homes from the early 1800's.
(a little foreshadowing, compare this house with the ~3000BC ruins at Skara Brae on Orkney Island which we'll posting on our Scotland trip report)
This was a reconstruction of an iron age dwelling call a crannog which was built in loughs (or lochs/lochans depending on where you call home...). It was either floating or on stilts and had a single path ingress/egress of stones just under the water surface. Kind of neat.
We were then off to continue our drive to
(say it with me now): the Ring of Kerry. We made it to Molly's gap and had some wonderful views out over Ireland's tallest peak, Carrauntoohil, and the Irish lake district.
At this point, we were about an eighth of the way into the complete traverse of
(last time, I promise): the Ring of Kerry. (just imagine you were with Sam this whole time... it never stopped!) We then decided that there wasn't enough room for our little rental Ford and all the giant tour buses on those tiny, twisty roads. These roads make the ones in England seem huge! So, we had a bright idea and found a nice looking back-road which went through the Black Valley (so named because the entire valley population died during the Potato Famine - slightly gruesome and sad...). Enroute, we found a really neat castle and some ancient standing stones.
We also found that bright ideas on maps can have complications; such as roads that turn into foot paths half way down them. Nice, right? So, after we hit this impasse, we decided to consult with our fare-bearing travelers and were a bit surprised with their reactions:
This obviously dictated that we head back to our little slice of heaven, pick up some more fish and Paddy whiskey in Bantry for a really nice evening at the bottom of Mount Kid. Here are a couple of views from the top of Mount Kid Sam took that evening. The first one has our cottage in it and the second one is the Sea!
Now, while Sam was out hiking, the girls and I were 'suffering terribly' in a gorgeous hot tub -which the girls referred to the entire time as "the pool". Really nice. We lived in it.
Saturday was our day to head to the Mizen peninsula to see a bit of the southwest Irish coast. This was a very beautiful area and we had some fantastic fish stew in Crookhaven. The girls even got a bit of beach time in a little cove there.
We even got to see Southern Ireland's best stone circle: Drombeg. Sandy and molly picked fresh fruschia flowers and laid them down in the center of the circle with other given coins and trinkets as a gift to the faeries.
On our way back to Cork Airport, we took pictures of our local village, Ballydehob, and a couple of the more interesting signs we saw. Can we say creepy on that Butcher's ad?!?!?
Even though it was a short trip, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in County Cork and found it to be altogether charming and very livable. Great food, pleasant climate and fantastic people!
It didn't take long for us to explore a bit and we instantly fell in love with the owners: Chef Chris & Pattie (part-time faerie), 
their four-legged children "Pepper" and "Alice",
standing stones and their verdant gardens which no doubt hid large populations of faerie-folk, leprechauns and newts (which were caught by the girls)!
This was a reconstruction of an iron age dwelling call a crannog which was built in loughs (or lochs/lochans depending on where you call home...). It was either floating or on stilts and had a single path ingress/egress of stones just under the water surface. Kind of neat.
