On to Kinsale via Killarney National Park

Killarney National Park - Ladies View

This morning we got showered and packed before going down to breakfast. Right after breakfast Chris went up to get the car and bring it down in front of the hotel so we could load it up and get on the road to Kinsale. It was raining lightly off and on when we left.

We headed down the N71 toward Kenmare. This route gave us a little taste of the Ring of Kerry through Killarney National Park. Beautiful views, lush forests and even a small castle. It was a lovely drive on narrow roads. When we return to Ireland one of the things we'll have to do is drive the Ring of Kerry.

When we got to Kenmare they were having an event to raise money to fight breast cancer. There were pink bras hanging on cables over the road and pink bras in the windows of shops, signs announcing a 10k Cancer Walk/Run and they were setting up an area to have a small carnival. We walked all over town stopping under shop eaves when it began to rain. We went into a few of the shops and I bought a t-shirt and a few treats in one of them.

We got back in our car and continued down N71 until we came to Bantry where we decided to have lunch. We found a cute little cafe called "The Bake House" and went inside. They were pretty crowded which we took as a good sign. The food turned out to be very good and pretty reasonable.

Back to the car to continue on N71. We stayed on N71 until we got to Clonakilty where we switched to the R600 for the rest of the way into Kinsale. We followed google maps and Siri to The Old Presbytery our accommodation for the night.

Our room at The Old Presbytery

The Old Presbytery is family run and dates from 1750. All the rooms are furnished in the style of the period. We liked it very much, breakfast was good and our bed was quite comfortable.

Fishy Fishy where we
had a lovely dinner

We had been told about a place called Fishy Fishy where we wanted to have dinner. The owner and chef has a TV show in Ireland and he's very popular. The restaurant is hard to get into but we lucked out. When we checked into The Old Presbytery the young woman at the front desk asked if she could make dinner reservations for us and we said we would like to eat at Fishy Fishy if that was possible. She called and they had a table for us at 6:30pm. Yay! 

We put our bags in the room and relaxed for a couple of minutes then decided to wander around town and maybe find a Guinness. Since this was Sunday night a lot of the shops were closed so we just window shopped eventually wandering down a street slightly off the main drag where we found a little local pub. They had tables outside and the weather had turned nice so we got a pint and sat enjoying the banter of the people around us.

Kinsale Harbor at sundown

By the time we finished our beers, it was close to time for our reservation. We went back down by the harbor, the light on the water was so beautiful that I had to take some pictures.

We made our way over to Fishy Fishy and they seated us right away.

The food was every bit as good as their reputation said it was. Our server was excellent and witty. We each had the seared tuna. It was very fresh, perfectly cooked and presented, and delicious. 

When dinner was finished it was getting late and we were very tired so we walked back to our room and went to bed.