Today we went into Kinsale to visit Desmond Castle. This is an urban tower house erected by the Earl of Desmond in the late 15th or early 16th century. In its lifetime, it has served as the Kinsale Customs House (the Earl had been granted the right to levy a 10% tax in kind on all wines passing through the port), an ordnance store, a prison and a workhouse. Today it is a OPW site, so we were able to gain free entry.
During the various Europan wars of the 17th and 18th centuries, the castle was used to confine French and Spanish prisoners of war prior to their being exchanged for British prisoners captured by the other side. The castle is thus alternatively called "The French Prison". The prisoners were treated in a somewhat inhumane manner, and there are numerous documents protesting this treatment!
In the 1840s the building was converted to a workhouse for the victims of the Great Famine — once again, there was little to be said for the humanity of the inmates' treatment!
It has now been turned into a museum of Irish wine connections throughout the world. Apparently after the Napoleonic Wars, a number of Irish soldiers remained in France, particularly around Bordeaux, and became remowned vintners. James Hennessy cognac is the result of one of these emigrés, and there are at least 14 other major wine houses in Bordeaux that are in fact Irish! And Spanish Sherries had the benefit of similar Irish input, and after that there were "Wine Geese" who emigrated to the US and Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Wakeman's, in South Australia's Clare Valley, is only one example of an Irish vintner, and Xanadu in Western Australia is another!
Anyway, we wandered the castle for an hour or so before we went into town for a late coffee and scone morning tea — this is beginning to become a theme! We walked up the other side of the Harbour and found the Kinsale Yacht Club. This town is a very prosperous area, and obviously depends on the holiday trade to a great extent — and today is the last day of the school year in Ireland! Should be fun here in the next few weeks! We returned to the van, then realized that Suzie wanted a Desmond Castle postcard to send to her Cousin Desmond! Walked back to Desmond Castle — no Desmond Castle postcards elsewhere — bought a card, then returned to the van.
We then set off for the Michael Collins Centre near Clonakilty, about 25km to the west. On the way, we stopped off and had lunch outside Timoleague Friary, an OPW site that is in the early stages of restoration, and is not yet open to the public. Nevertheless, the views from the outside are very atmospheric. When it finally is opened, it will be well worth visiting! And the estuary on which it is situated, of the Argideen River, is worth the trip in its own right — it's beautiful! The town of Timoleague is picturesque to say the least, but if you are averse to narrow serpentine streets, you might like to think twice about visiting. You could always park at the Friary (easy to access) and walk into the township.
We continued on to find the Michael Collins Centre. After numerous narrow country roads/lanes, stops for cattle crossing, and a few backtrackings — the signage leading to it leaves a little to be desired — we found it, but found we were a little early to get in — by about 3 weeks! Not open till mid-June! Not to be fazed, we went on to Clonakilty. Got there about 4:10pm, too late to do anything about visiting the model train museum there — and decided it wasn't worth waiting for tomorrow to do it, so we wandered the town. It has the longest main street of any village we've seen — to the extent that it had two virtually identical sweet shops a couple of blocks apart, both of which appear to be doing well. We replenished our supply of extra-strong mints there. We then redirected our travels towards Killarney, about 1½-2 hours to the northwest. This meant — according to the Garmin — a little more cross-country driving before we met with the N22 about 10km east of Macroom (Maigh Cromtha). We drove into and just through Macroom, where we found a stop by the cemetery just inside the town limits. Susie went for a walk and returned to say she had found a great place to move to, well off the highway, and totally secluded. This sounded like a good move, so here we are for the night, in a large turning circle by an abandoned factory!
Distance driven — today, 67 miles ( 108 km ); to date, 1,700 miles ( 2,736 km )
The end of this entry sounds like a great start to a ghost story! :) Loving the photos, Timoleague Friary is gorgeous.
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