This is the 3rd part in my Ireland 2019 series.

You can view my overview page with links for all the cities I stopped at.

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Cork

On day 7 I left Killarney and made my way to Cork. It was a bit bittersweet, as my 2 days in Killarney flew by, and I wished in retrospect I’d booked a longer stay to explore it some more.

I was really considering skipping Cork to stay in Killarney for longer, but alas, I decided to just stick out my original plans and keep moving.

Day 7 - May 27th

Getting the bus from Killarney to Cork

I set out early morning, as the bus I wanted to catch departed at 8:30am. I asked for a map to the bus stop at my hostel during checkout, and they said it was simple enough to walk there, but I nearly missed it as there were no signs outside the bus station marking it as such.

Well actually, I did miss it - I walked right passed it and only about 5 or so minutes of walking later decided to turn back and double-check if I had indeed missed it. On the way back, I checked an entryway/parking lot that had no buses, but had some sort of mini shopping center. I thought I’d have a look inside in case I could find some info, and sure enough, that’s where the bus terminal was. The walk to the bus terminal from my hostel would have only been about 15 minutes had I found it right away, but probably ended up taking me closer to 25 minutes. Thankfully I still made it with enough time to spare before the bus arrived.

The ride from Killarney to Cork was about 1.5 hours, and gave me some time to relax and go over some of my pics from the previous days. As expected, it was also a beautiful scenic ride, one thing I’d really come to enjoy while travelling through Ireland.

Another thing I really started to enjoy was walking along Irish streets and admiring the houses and buildings.

They’re so colourful and quaint, and lovely to take in while going for a stroll.

Checking in at my hostel

Once we got to Cork, I got off the bus and started making my way to my hostel.

I don’t think I mentioned it before, but I use Google navigation’s walking directions when travelling if I can. It helps a ton, but only if you’ve got a data connection. I’ve also used maps.me, but I could never really get the hang of it and it only somewhat worked for me when I’ve used it. So if I know I won’t have a data connection, I’ll write out the walking directions prior to leaving.

In Cork, I booked my stay at Kinlay House hostel.

I checked in, and then had to access a separate external building to get to my room.

My room was … about only as big as it needed to be! Shall we say, cozy? Oh well, I was only staying in Cork for a day so, I guess it’ll do.

Despite the size of the room, the bed was quite comfortable. I did smell fresh cigarette smoke in my room though, which was likely coming from the hall, so that was a pretty annoying.

Blarney Castle

‘There is a stone there, that whoever kisses, OH! He never misses, to grow eloquent’.

I don’t recall when I first heard about Blarney Castle, but I was familiar enough with the kissing stone. “The gift of gab” isn’t something I necessarily crave, but the legend seemed interesting, so it was the first stop on my itinerary for Cork.

To get to the castle, I was able to catch bus 215 about a 2 minute walk from my hostel. It was about a 40 minute ride, with the bus bringing me near the Castle, after which I had just a short walk.

I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t purchase my ticket in advance. I knew if I did I’d have saved a few Euros, but despite that I decided to purchase my ticket on-site instead.

As I was approaching the castle, it didn’t seem that packed, and I thought “Great, I made it before it got busy”. Then I found out where the actual entrance to the castle was, and realized the line up was longer than I had anticipated!

The following photo doesn’t really illustrate how long the line was … I actually snapped this photo after advancing quite a bit, and I soon realized the bulk of the line was hidden behind the entrance doorway!

The castle is really quite stunning. And you’ll certainly have quite a bit of time to admire it’s beauty while you spend a good hour or more waiting in the line to reach the Blarney stone!

A pretty interesting little tidbit about Blarney Castle is that the walls at the base of the castle are 18 feet thick!!

The line moves quite slowly, as you’re basically waiting for each person at the top to be aided into position, so they can then kiss the stone.

But like I said, it’ll give you plenty of time to take in the different areas of the castle, take pics, and read the little boards posted around that explain what the different parts of the castle were used for.

You can actually see one of those in the picture below, where it shows that area was used as the kitchen, and gives details about it.

You can visit the official website for more about the various areas/rooms in the castle.

On the way up, you’ll also have the chance to get a unique view of some of the gardens.

They’re absolutely gorgeous, and worth taking in when you’re done with the castle - or before if that’s how you plan your visit.

After what was quite a slow ascent, I was nearing the stone. Sorry to disappoint though, but I had absolutely no intention of kissing it! I just wanted to explore the castle, and the top of the castle, where you get to kiss the stone, is also where you’ll have some absolutely gorgeous views.

Once I had made it to the top and worked my way around, it was a much quicker descent back to the ground.

I went around and walked through the gardens a bit, briefly checking out Blarney House, and then made my way back towards my hostel, from where I walked to the English market.

The English Market

The English Market is an actual food market in Cork where locally grown and produced food is sold. I think I initially thought it was tourist-aimed, but it is indeed a full-on market for locals and I suppose tourists alike.

The market has mostly raw produce, but I was looking for a spot to grab lunch. I located the Farmgate cafe, which is on the second floor, and headed up there to see what they had.

I ordered some pork sausages and a beer, and the sausages were fantastic. Really hit the spot.

As I only booked one day in Cork though, I was on a tight schedule, as I still wanted to make my way to the city jail by foot. The weather was starting to take a turn, and I was considering hailing a cab, but finally said screw it and headed off on foot.

Cork City Gaol

It was about a 30 minute walk from the English Market to the city jail, and thankfully the weather ended up holding out.

This jail looked quite a bit more modern than Kilmainham in Dublin, and since it was built more than 100 years later, it makes sense.

I bought my ticket onsite, and paid extra for the audio guide. The tour itself is self guided, so you’re able to visit it at your leisure.

Some of the rooms throughout the jail have life-size figures, to give you that real sense of what things were like at the time. The architecture of the jail is really beautiful.

You can see here below as well, how modern looking this jail was. Really such a beautifully designed jail, although I doubt the prisoners cared much.

As with Kilmainham, there were many women, and even children jailed here at the time.

I spent about an hour working my way through the jail, and the audio guide gave details about some of the harsh realities.

Considering how cheap it is to visit, I think it’s a worthwhile stop on your itinerary if you’re in Cork and enjoy that type of history.

Another day comes to an end

After making my way through the jail, I walked the ~30 minutes back towards my hostel, but then continued on to get a quick dinner at … gasp … McDonalds! No pics needed there I think!

And that was it for my stay in Cork, just a real quick visit before I headed off to Kilkenny the next morning.