The Day we Visited Blackrock Castle

 It was going to be another laid back kind of day as we prepare for departure from Ireland, but as they say, even the best laid plans go astray. 

Julie and Mark took the opportunity to tour the Ring of Kerry with a local bus company while Wallsy and I planned a visit to the Blackrock Castle Observatory out at the end of the Cork Marina. 

It took us two buses to get there, but we saw some other suburbs, which is always interesting, especially from the top deck of the bus. Each area we go through seems to differ in terms of type of housing and size of garden, if there is any garden at all. The suburbs of Beaumont and Blackrock certainly had fewer rows of terrace dwellings and bigger garden plots. 

Arriving at the closest stop to the Castle we walked a section of the relatively new Greenway walking and cycling path to reach the impressive building which now houses an Observatory operated by Munster Technological University (MTU).




Built in 1582 as a fort to protect the Port of Cork, it was redeveloped as a castle in 1604. Then it was burnt down and rebuilt a couple of times (1722 and 1829). The observatory was added in 2002. Entry to the building takes you through a comprehensive display in the science centre, an art exhibition centred around space, and a self guided tour of the old gunnery, and the towers, allowing access to the rooftops of the towers for expansive views over Cork and out towards the sea. 





After our visit, we decided to walk along Castle road as far as Blackrock Village, which took us past some very substantial Georgian homes overlooking the harbour (including the container dock).  We shouted ourselves an icecream in the village and just missed the 13:15 bus which would have taken us back into the centre of Cork City. On checking the timetable at the bus stop we discovered that being a Sunday, the next bus was an hour away. 

It was a beautiful sunny day, a tad warm, but there was a lovely breeze near the water, so we decided to walk back to town on the Marina Promenade, a wide tree-lined path which would take us to the Marina Market and beyond. 



All was going well, we had been strolling along for almost an hour when we came to a dead end. The Promenade came to an abrupt halt and we hadn’t yet reached the market. Backtracking a short distance, we found another path which led us past some less appealing water views (a filthy drain at the back of a whole lot of industrial buildings) and finally to the back of the Marina Market. It was feeling hotter as we neared the city, having now left the port channel and the leafy avenue behind, we tried to find the nearest 220 bus stop, which saw us walking all the way into Grand Parade. 

We headed home for a rest, hot, bothered and footsore. The walk had been very pleasant, until it wasn’t, and of course when we alighted from the 220 at Victoria Cross we still had a hot 20 minute walk to our apartment. 

Anyway, we rested up and cooled down, and I finished the book I have been reading, timed so I can leave it here and not add anything unnecessary to my 20kg check-in luggage limit. 

Feeling restored, we walked back to the bus stop to meet up in town with the other two weary travellers and shout ourselves to a final night spent in an Irish pub, eating mushy peas and tapping our feet to some traditional Irish music. The duo, on guitar, accordian and tin whistle, even played The Wild Colonial Boy for the Aussies in the room. 

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