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.

Meat and Potatoes

May the 4th Be With You

Cashel, Ireland

Distance travelled: 214 km

Cumulative distance (not including walking) 214 km

We said goodbye to our Parisienne friends at breakfast this morning and we were away within 45 minutes of our targetted departure time of 10:00 am. My idea had originally been to walk to pick up the rental car, drive it back to the hotel and pick up Nan and the luggage. Her idea was to Uber it to the car rental place. She won.  Which, in the end, made much more sense because we were already later than we had planned, and I use that term lightly and since our plan was to drive back roads, it would take longer to drive the distance than otherwise on the Ireland Interstate Super Highway-Motorway. 

The car rental place was busy, perhaps because today is a "bank holiday" and most businesses are closed. There were extra staff at the rental place and I checked in while Nan stood guard over the luggage outside. The were operating pretty efficiently but it was clear that the car I "ordered" had little bearing on what they had available.  However, I did specify an automatic since I would be driving on the WRONG side of the road, I figured I would prefer to have one less thing to worry about if I had to react to something. 

I didn't monitor how long we were there but it was probably 45 minutes. My credit card covers the Collision Damage Waiver, which was DOUBLE the car rental price, so I was glad to present my letter from the CC insurance company. I didn't get any grief for this, unlike when I made the reservation, so that was good. I had to pay extra for taking the car into Northern Ireland because it is a different country and they managed to talk me into an extra ten Euros for insurance to cover the stuff that wasn't covered by the CDW. OK, it was still 50 Euros less than what I would have had to pay.  PER DAY, BTW. Last warning from the agent: insurance does NOT cover an unregistered driver, drinking and driving and putting diesel in a petrol car.  USE THE GREEN HANDLED PUMP! Then, when we did the walk around the vehicle, I noticed in large block white letters on our black car next to the gas cap the word DIESEL. Green handle means petrol (gasoline). 

To the uninitiated, driving on the wrong side of the road takes a little conditioning. I've done it before; a couple of times in Australia in 1983 and once in Fiji in about 2010, so I figured I would be fine. I will say it is beneficial having an extra set of eyes until things become a little more natural, even if we are snapping at each other. Turning into the correct lane, especially when turning right, it is good for a copilot reminding the driver to stay in the left lane. I think the thing I had to concentrate on the most though, was staying in the centre of the lane. Imagine yourself driving down the road on the right hand side. You are sitting over the left part of the lane and if the road is grooved or there are ruts, as the driver, you will be directly over top of that (left) groove. A few times, the car had to remind me to drive in the centre of the lane as I occasionally drifted over to the left side. I was gravitating to be over the left groove in the road; it was instinct. Believe me, on the back roads, there is nothing beyond the edge of the lane. The other thing is the drivers: generally speaking, they are pretty good. As a rule, I found most other drivers didn't speed, exiting Dublin, they didn't run yellow lights but what they DID do, was cut corners coming around bends. They can't see an oncoming car (around the corner) so they think they own the road. A couple of times cars were partly in our lane as they came around the corner, which gave me a fright and also tested the braking power of our rented Skoda. The other drivers seemed oblivious to this being problematic. They don't run yellow lights! What more do you want?

Our primary stop for the day was at Birr Castle in, you guessed it, Birr. This was a big deal for me and I have the good fortune of having a patient and tolerant wife who humours me on occasion. Birr Castle, which is a castle where people actually live, is the home of the Leviathan 72 inch telescope, originally constructed in 1845.

For 70 years, it was the largest telescope in the world, under the world's cloudiest skies. It wouldn't matter if it was STILL the world's biggest telescope, you can't see much through clouds. However, there were some hand drawn astronomical images produced by the Earl that resembled actual astronomical views, and for the nerds in the crowd (both of you!) the Earl discovered that galaxies have a spiral structure.  I could go on... but I will spare you.  Let's just say that this was a highlight for me. 

Birr Castle had been requesitioned as a barracks during the Irish Civil War. The three young men were fighting on for the anti-Treaty forces, i.e. those attempting to maintain ties with the United Kingdom.  They were found guilty by a military court of the Irish Free State which was later criticized for being without due process. They were executed on the site of the  above archway leading to the castle on Janary 23, 1923. Two were 19 yeas old and the third was 20. The plaque was erected on the 80th anniversary of their deaths.

We continued on back roads, with speed limits up to 100 kph with nary an extra inch on the side of the road to squeeze by oncoming traffic, to Cashel. However, because we had had a long day, we accepted the revised route guidance taking us down the motorway (super highway) even though it is pretty uninteresting.  Arriving in Cashel, we were greeted with the impressive scene of The Rock of Cashel, which is a castle sitting on top of a big rock in, you guessed it, Cashel. We checked into our hotel, which is really a quaint old house on the main street with 20 rooms. Our room is very large and decorated by my grandmother. But it also has a view of The Rock, which is nice. 

View of The Rock of Cashel from our hotel room at Bailey's Hotel in Cashel.

Since we arrived in Ireland, we have consumed an enourmous amount of meat, potatoes, roasted root vegetables and nothing green. Even for breakfast in the hotel in Dublin, everyday it was the same: scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, fried mushrooms and roasted tomatoes. Bread/pancakes/formed, deep fried hashbrowns and blood sasuage were also on offer. Oh, and I would have a bowl of fresh fruit with yougurt, which made for something fresh. But it was filling. Dinner has been typically beef or lamb or sausage with potatoes. Today, I was determined that I was going to find myself a salad somewhere and when we checked into the hotel, the front dest attendant offered to make us a dinner reservation in the hotel restaurant. I commented that I was in serious need of a salad and she recommended the chicken parmesean salad.  Now as a rule, my preference is to get away from the hotel restaurant because I don't want to dine with other tourists, I want to go somewhere that I can meet some locals. We skirted a dinner reservation and I was thankful they really didn't have room for us for a couple of hours. She suggested we could sit in the bar without a reservation however, we opted to walk down the street to Feehan's Bar when I saw they had a salad on the menu. On the way down there, a couple of old guys (even to us) hanging out on the street cat-called Nono and yelled out, "She is looking fine!" She's still got it. 

Even though Feehan's is on the main street, I was doubtful that it would be a "local's bar". Sure enough, there was a family that was sitting on the patio having drinks and I thought that told the tale. Inside, it was a different story. There were a half dozen people sitting at the bar and a few couples (seniors all) at tables around the place. There was also a fairly large group of people, maybe seven or eight,  that looked like - and I don't mean this unkindly - some people looking totally out of place in a tourist town and the one in a very snug-fitting cat suit  who looked totally out of place with her group was up at the bar asking where they could get food. It seems the kitchen in Feehan's closes at half past four. And we were there after 7 pm so we had all missed dinner, along with everything else.  The bartender suggested Bailey's, which is the hotel restaurant where we are staying and off they trotted. One fellow sitting at the bar suggested to us another place and Nan and I decided to sit down and have a beer to contemplate our next course of action. We decided we would try "the other place" and it was close so convenient. Well clearly, we stand out as tourists because the places being suggested were clearly catering to tourists and not locals. The Other Place was full and we would have to wait at least a half hour to get into a table. We opted to walk back to our hotel restaurant and hope that we could get in there, despite the fact that Google Maps lists multiple restaurants all around us. We walked by another other place and looked at the menu that featured, amongst other things, "pheasant under glass" and "suckling pig". What does that even mean? We kept walking and someone, who shall remain nameless but not me, was getting a little hangry and concerned we might not find any food. I suggested that, worse case scenario, there was Super Valu (sic) Foods across the street and were still open. But better yet, we passed a take-out pizza shop on the way back to the hotel, which became our back up plan should we be refused entry to Bailey's.

Inside, I saw one of the group from Feehan's walk by.  Yhe restaurant person who greeted us at the door did us a BIG favour when Nan mentioned that we were hotel guests and we were able to get a table. I ordered chicken parmesean salad and Nan ordered some chicken rice dish. We each ordered a glass of chardonnay. My meal came and was actually a very thin bed of lettuce and red onions with a pile of battered, fried chicken and boiled potatoes drenched in about a cup of melted cheddar cheese sauce. Tasty but not what I was craving. We may need a different strategy moving forward or be prepared to carry a set of paddles for the rest of the trip.

A telescope lens and a copy of a drawing done by the 3rd Earl of  Rosse.

The drawings above and further below were expressed to me as being original drawings by the Earl. That may well be the case but if not, they were certainly very old.

The Earl's wife was no less a scientist than her husband. She was a pioneer in early photography, though they were unable to ascertain a method to make astronomical photographs. Here is a depiction of her darkroom.