Corked

May 5, 2026

Distance traveled: 215 km

Cumulative distance: 429 km

Temperature range: 11 - 15. Cloudy but no rain.

Ed note: I amended yesterday's post with a few more pictures with descriptions and less colourful destriptions of who I met.

The Bailey's Hotel is an old classic along "main" (and I use that term loosely) street of Cashel. It was constructed in 1709 and is a maze of rooms with nooks, crannies and maybe hidden passages from one part of the hotel to another as it was a distorted and twisted affair moving between the restaurant and the rooms. It was an odd arrangement replete with multiple turns and stairwells moving from one part to another. Who knows what it was like 300 years ago but I think priorities may have been different in those days.

The inside of the original front door of the Bailey's Hotel, 1709.

We made haste and out the door to our first stop of the day at the Rock of Cashel. This is not the main Cashel FM radio station, it is a large, castle - like church structure overlooking the town of Cashel.  The 28 metre bell tower was comenced in 1101 the year in which the site was turned over to the Catholic Church. The guide described the tower, the first building constructed under the Bishop and the oldest remaining structure on the site, as sitting on limestone, with no foundation and my first thought was, "is this tower in danger of falling over?" As if he read my mind, the guide piped up that at 900 years old and still standing, it probably wasn't going anywere for the foreseeable future. 

The remainder of the structure - cathedral halls, rectory, residences for clerics and choir were built over the next 375 years until The Plague brought a 100 year hault to construction throughout Europe. The detail throughout, though since faded or "softened" was really quite amazing and some of the figures may depict patrons who wished to support the Bishop or the church.

The bell tower shown here, at 28 metres is shorter than is normally seen in Ireland. Occasionally monks would take refuge in the tower during attack however, as the inside structure was wooden, it was easy to persude sheltering monks to give up by burning the internal structure. So that they could be executed by invaders.

Cleric's residence below.

One of the better surviving details. 

Ornamental coverings on a tomb.

Dodging the highway, we twisted our way down supreme motorcycle roads to the Ardmore Round Tower, site of one of the taller towers in Ireland and home to an ancient cathedral with numerous tombs within and an "active" cemetary surrounding. Originally, grave markers did not contain insctriptions and family of Ardmore citizens buried there would remember their loved ones' place of rest by the shape of the tombstone.

We had a visit at the Charles Fort, a 15th century military installation based on a French design called a Star Fort. With walls 15 to 50 feet thick, it was a formidable defensive postion challenging any sea-faring navy from attacking the fort. Unfortunately, the hill alongside the fort made for a perfect spot for cannons to lob shots directly into the fort and the one time that the fort saw action, it took only 13 days for surrender. During the last three days of seige, the British fired an average of one cannon ball per minute over the three days. Oops. Nonetheless, it is still an impressive structure. 

Thick, formidible walls.

Close quarters within the garrison. Up to 3,000 troops and support persons could live within the walls. 

Cannons could get so hot while being fired that shots could get caught while being fired, causing the cannon to explode.

Infantry quarters. With their own fireplace! 

The hill overlooking for the fort. I'd call that an oversite. 

We drove throught the town of Kinsale, which Fort Charles protects, and saw streets narrower than we had experienced since coming to Ireland.  A pretty town, it was founded by the Dutch "some years ago" and they hadn't thought about future technology, like automobiles. We were fortunate to not come to any oncoming traffic, unlike our experience in Cork.

Roads in Cork a definitely narrow. At one point, a car was pulled over to the side so I thought it was getting ready to park so I simply used my growing confidence and went around only to discover that the road gets really narrow and the reason the car was stopped was not to park but to allow a car coming up the hill to pass us. I ended up having to back up up the hill, behind the car that had pulled over so as to allow the approaching car to pass. From there is was a challenge to get to the hotel with a series of mulitple turns taking us through the dense part of Cork. I'm surprised we made it unscathed. 

Cork mural.

The River Lee through Cork.

Oliver Plunkett Street.

Lancaster Street.