A Visit to Cork, Ireland

Despite being an incredibly small country, there are endless activities to partake in when visiting beautiful Ireland. County Cork is the largest county in Ireland, making the list of things to do quite long! I spent three wonderful days in Cork and still managed not to see it all! If you only have 72 hours in this beautiful part of the emerald isle, then you should make time to visit Cork City, Cobh, Blarney Castle, Kinsale, and the Jameson Distillery in Middleton. 

We stayed at a modern Airbnb in Cork City and I highly recommend staying in town as it seemed fairly central to all the sights Cork had to offer. I wanted to visit Cobh, a small fishing town, known for being the last stop before the Titanic set sail in the Atlantic. My main goal was to capture a photo of the image above. I'd seen this picturesque row of colored homes all over my Pinterest feed and had to see it for myself! Searching for this row of colored homes was quite easy, but getting the angle just right made for a fun adventure during our visit. For those looking to capture this exact photo, then I will save you the trouble we went through to get it - after walking for at least 20 minutes back and forth the same three streets, we were still unable to find the exact view. Suddenly, we realized that a large stone wall about 6 feet tall was in our way! Without hesitation I climbed on Matt's shoulders and snapped my desired photo of the Cobh landscape. 

After Cobh, we drove along old winding country roads to make our way to the town of Kinsale. We stopped for lunch at The White House and couldn't pass up dessert at Sunday's ice cream parlor. While they didn't have traditional 99's, I requested vanilla ice cream and a classic flake bar to make the next closest thing to the classic Irish treat.

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Blarney Castle, a medieval castle built in 1446, is a major tourist attraction in Ireland. That being said, it is wise to buy tickets in advance or arrive early to avoid a long line. We arrived one afternoon to learn that it would be an hour wait to get past the door, so we decided to come back first thing in the morning to enjoy the castle to ourselves. By doing so, we were lucky to find the area with very few tourists (great for photographs!) and a short line to kiss the Blarney Stone. It's said that those who kiss the stone will receive the gift of the gab, or eloquent speech. This sight is definitely one for checking off your bucket list!

TravelKerry Greenetravel, ireland, cork ireland, cork, blarney castle, cobh, kinsale, Irish Castles2 Comments