On the way back to Cork from Clonakilty, after driving through stunning countryside and harbours, we stopped off in the small seaside town of Kinsale. Kinsale is set in a picturesque harbour itself and has become known for its colourful streets, vibrant culinary scene and rich history, which includes pirates! Whilst I was researching our trip, I listened to many podcasts from Rick Steves and I remember him mentioning multiple times how lovely Kinsale was, and it certainly lived up to the hype!
We stopped off for only a short wander around but we arrived to lovely blue skies and a warm afternoon. We found a playground along the waterfront to play in, then wandered further into the main streets where we enjoyed an icecream (the girls) and pint of Guinness ( Braino ) and a browse around the boutique shops (myself). And of course, we stopped off in a quaint little bookshop. Playgrounds, icreceams and bookshops are our winning combination to keep the girls happy. Although we have be fortunately enough to be able to sign up to the libraries here in Ireland and we’ve been borrowing plenty of books, which saves us having to negotiated the purchase of books at all the bookshops we pop in to.
If we had more time in Kinsale, I would have like to check out Charles Fort, which is the large star shaped ruins of a military fort that stands on the headland and overlooks the harbour. It was pretty fascinating to see the miniature version of it at the Model Rail Village, so it would have been cool to wander around the real site.
