Kinsale to Cork

21st August
Kinsale to Cork
We drove up to the area known as Charles Fort. Five minutes only to wait and the next guided tour was to start. Our guide was really great. While we were going around it was absolutely pelting down rain, everyone was putting up umbrellas or pulling up their raincoat hoods - but she never missed a beat and kept on with her very animated talk. By the time the tour finished the sun was out and the wind had dried us off.
Kinsale was established in the 12th century by the Anglo-Normans. It was a thriving port but in1678, when the English were having trouble with the French it was decided to use the fort area to stop England being invaded via Ireland. It took four years to construct the fort as it stands today from the very basic fort it had been. Charles Fort covers 12 acres. It was never successful and the only time it came under threat the fort was surrendered. It is a really good fort if your enemies only fought according to your rules and attack from the water - of course the attack came from the land - 10,000 men with only 1,400 defending the fort. An honourable surrender was given and the men filed out with all of their belongings and pride in tact. It has been a place of significance in recent years - 1920 - 1922 but the Irish wanted to make sure the English never again could use the fort and so it was burnt out. It is being restored and conserved. From Charles Fort you can look across to the James Fort, a small fort built on the other side of the harbour. The idea being that if one lot of cannons didn't get you the cannons from the other fort would. Obviously it was a failure as a fort although it looks impressive but from the fort you get wonderful views of Kinsale.
We drove to Cork, about 20 k. We had been told that Cork is a nightmare city to drive in. We even saw park and drive depots outside the city as many people don't want to even drive into the city. Unfortunately we had no other option as our hotel was on the other side of the city. We asked one local for directions - he could get us a bit closer but said to then get more directions from someone else. Oh dear.....anyway with a little bit of luck and guess work we finished up on the right road and before we knew it we were parked at the Ambassador Hotel. We got settled into our room and then went for a walk into Cork city centre.
Cork is just another big city. It has many of the top name English department stores in some of the up-market streets but also many quite shabby and grubby shops. We had a look around the English Market. It is a produce market with fresh fish, meat, vege stalls. Outside one of the fish stalls was a huge fish about 6 foot long from tip to tail. One half of the fish had been already cut off and sold. It was quite smelly in the market so it was really nice to get out in the fresh air - blowing quite briskly now - and head up the hill back to our hotel.
We have two nights here so we decided a quiet afternoon would be good.