As every year for the past few years, we are back in West Cork again. We stayed in a B&B in Baltimore, which had a beautiful view as you can see. There is a Baltimore in the USA, which is much bigger than the Irish one, but the American was named after the small village in Ireland.
In 1169 the Normans arrived into Ireland and one of the first to arrive with Strongbow was Robert FitzStephen. Within a few years King Henry ll granted FitzStephen half of the kingdom of Cork to settle a colony in the area. The castle became the main seat of the O’Driscolls in 1261 for the next four hundred years. It was used as a centre of administration for trading activities and collection of taxes from foreign traders frequenting the port. In the middle and later-middle ages therefore, the O’Driscolls enjoyed a prosperous lifestyle.
The next morning we went along the shore, looking for a place called Cunnamore, as we had planned to take a ferry to visit Heir Island.
We did not go to Heir Island at the end, but we enjoyed the amazing views on the way to the Pier.
There are lovely little coves, which you will find sometimes accidently, when you leave the main roads. I found it is worth it to do that!
We went into the smallest, tightest side roads, not knowing what would wait for us and we went also up and down hills and mountains and found the most beautiful sights we did not know existed.
On our way back home, we headed in the direction Killarney first. Before I forget, I would suggest to look around and compare the prices of the accommodations, because we were disappointed when we found out afterwards, that we could have got rooms in a hotel for the same price as we paid for the one in our B&B. We would have preferred to stay in a hotel as it is more comfortable and you can enjoy the evenings in their bars.
My husband found the poor donkeys looked like politicians, I thought they look nicer!
You will find more photos about beautiful West Cork in my photo blog soon ( see link on side board)
Photos by Margit Anna Doyle
