Irish Adventures, Kinsale

 The next leg of my Irish road trip brought me South, to the picturesque small town of Kinsale. Full of narrow streets, sloping hills and colorful storefronts, this waterside town has become quite the tourist hot spot. It has garnered a reputation for some of the best cuisine in Ireland, which for me turned out to be both good and bad. On one hand, the food was delicious. On the other hand, everything was quite overpriced, even in the "off" season. Kinsale is bustling and thriving all throughout the Spring and Summer months, but it was very quiet when I was there. I was told by a shopkeeper that I was there for the last open weekend of the year, and that almost everything in the town would shut down the following week and until Spring. Many places has already closed for the season, but I really enjoyed exploring everything that hadn't. I stayed three nights in my absolute favorite B&B of my Ireland trip - The Old Presbytery. Please, please, please, if you ever happen to visit Kinsale, you must stay there! It was elegant, cozy and full of character. I liked my quiet, top-floor room so much that I would have been perfectly happy to spend all my time there tucked into my ridiculously comfortable bed.

Kinsale is one of those quaint, small towns that I think is best explored with a significant other...where you wander through the streets, shop, eat nice meals and enjoy the little coffee shops and the pretty scenery. Coming from Dublin and Galway, I was in "wake up early and run all day mode." In order to fully explore those places in a limited time, I'd had to jump out of bed as early as possible and power through my days. Definitely not so with Kinsale. On my first morning there, I got up at 8:00am to find it was still fully dark out, and the world outside my window deserted. Confusingly, it stays darker for longer farther south in Ireland. After taking my time with the amazing breakfast at the B&B, I finally made it out with my camera, and looped around the town a couple of times fairly quickly.

At this point, I needed to find more to do as I had several hours until lunch. So, I took my B&B host's advice and headed out on the "Scilly Walk." Again, please please please - if you visit Kinsale, you must take this walk. It begins on a street heading out of the main town, and loops up and down hills, around Kinsale Harbor and through a gorgeous wooded path until it eventually ends up at Charles Fort, which looks out over Kinsale Harbour near where it connects to the Celtic Sea. The walk itself was beautiful and peaceful, and I came across very few other people during most of the 2.5 mile walk in each direction. It ended up being one of my favorite activities of my entire trip, which says a lot! Charles Fort is an old military fort built in the 1670's and formerly occupied by Spanish forces. It is now in ruins, but has been partially restored and sits on well-kept grounds open to the public. I spent quite a while climbing among the ruins and found it to be very beautiful and interesting. 

Kinsale Bay and the start of the Scilly Walk

Kinsale Bay

 St. Charles Fort

My remaining time in Kinsale was relaxing. I ate great food, took a cool tour of the town and visited the famous Old Head golf course for lunch. Despite the town being small, my time there really flew by and I was sad to say goodbye to the Old Presbytery.