The Day the Sun Shone in Cork

The day began with rain, so we donned our coats and walked down to catch the Hop on Hop off bus into town before our 24 hour ticket expired at 11. This time, the bus was on time and stopped at the correct stop when we hailed it. 

We began by wandering up the famous Oliver Plunkett street and exploring this pretty shopping and foodie precinct. 

Back down near the river, we found a restaurant called Luigi Malones and couldn’t quite decide whether we were in Italy or Ireland, however we ventured in and found some pretty good food to suit all our tastes, across both cultures (Wallsy and I had pizza/Julie and Mark had soup).

We emerged from lunch to find the sun out and some warmth in the air. Shedding our raincoats, we crossed the river and walked up a steep hill to St Anne’s Church and the Shandon Bells and Tower, which incongruously has a gold fish on top as the weather vane. 

Inside, we donned ear defenders to protect our hearing against the sound of the bells and then climbed the stairs to the second floor where we were able to ring the bells. Then we climbed many more stairs to reach the top of the bell tower and enjoy the 360 degree views of the city and surrounding countryside. 

Down the stairs and into the Church, we read a little of the history before heading out again to explore more of this historic precinct, dominated by the old butter market and the round Firken Crane building, which was the central weighing house for the once global Cork Butter Market. Next door to this interesting circular construction, we entered the Butter Museum. Here we learnt the skills of butter making through a practical demonstration, in which Julie took part, churning the butter. The stages of the process were explained, and it was all very interesting, as were the museum displays. The resulting butter tasted excellent too.

Wallsy had been trying to organise the printing of the material which would guide us on our forthcoming walk on the Dingle Way, as it hadn’t reached our inboxes until after we left home. He found a company in Cork able to do the printing from an emailed PDF, and as we left the butter factory he received word that the printing was ready. So we set off to find the business and collect the pages. Lo and behold, Wallsy collected, not a wad of A4 sheets, but a neat A5 spiral bound book containing all our walk details and maps. He was as proud of it as if he was the author! 

On the way to the printing shop we found a Franciscan Church, the green domed roof of which we had observed from the Sandon Tower. It was an unusual church, with an overabundance of stained glass in the entry, and incredible gold mosaic work in the altar. 

Our next visit was to the Cathedral of Saint Finn Barre, which we viewed from the outside, before walking on to the nearby Elizabeth Fort; a 17th century fort used as military barracks, prison and police station at various times during its long history. Its role as a prison for female convicts before they were transported to Australia, was both fascinating and terribly sad. 

After this, we needed a reviving drink in the Old Bear Hotel to overcome the heat (never thought I was going to say that in Ireland!) and we then walked back down into the city, and had another rest in the Peace Park, before walking to The Oliver Plunkett where we had a dinner booking, and hoped to absorb some Irish culture from their live music offering of the night. 

The two men playing and singing in the downstairs bar were definitely skilled musicians, but it wasn’t quite what we were expecting and we were sat upstairs, so while we could still hear the performance we couldn’t see the duo. Anyway, it had been a full day, so we grabbed some groceries and set out for home in a cab.