Escape to County Cork

“Water and ground in their extremity”
Carved into a slab of black marble at the foot of Seefin Mountain, the words of Seamus Heaney capture west Cork’s peninsulas and clear-water bays perfectly. These fingers of land, framing inlets of calm water, rich with cormorants, seals and mussel farms, are the county’s biggest attraction. But the quieter farmland that lies north and west of the city also has a genteel, stylish charm. The countryside around the towns of Mallow and Fermoy is threaded by the broad, ruddy-brown Blackwater river, which moves with a sense of urgency through gentle, undulating land. Every crest hereabouts sports a country house, often with a ruined castle attached and surrounded by oak forests and swirling clouds of crows.

It is a place of colourful history. Various would-be invaders have sailed into Cork’s bays and various armies of suppression have marched down its valleys. There are castles everywhere, most of them in ruins – except those lived in by the likes of Jeremy Irons and David Puttnam. The coast has been a hard taskmaster and in the past emigration was dramatic, famine laid waste to whole villages and the map is thick with cillin (famine burial grounds). But tourism has led a revival and multi-coloured paintpots have transformed many a high street. Inland, in the grand houses of country landowners, aristocratic hosts graciously receive paying guests and sit them down to dinner among the family silver.

Today this intensely local land of small farmers and fishermen has a cosmopolitan layer of enterprising Europeans. The natives and newcomers derive much mutual amusement from each other’s eccentricities, but they also co-exist in remarkable symbiosis.

Glorious gardens
Reached by a gentle boat trip out past basking seals from Glengarriff, Garinish Island sits like a forested cruiser in a corner of Bantry Bay. With its aromatic smell of Mediterranean pine, the Italianate Ilnacullin garden designed by Harold Peto (00 353 27 63040; www.heritageireland.ie), and trees from Tasmania and the Himalayas, it is disorientatingly sub-tropical.

Bantry House (00 353 27 50047; www.bantryhouse.com) dominates the town of the same name. Owned by the eccentric, self-effacing Egerton Shelswell-White, whose trombone practice can be heard echoing down the hallways, this enormous 18th-century house is the setting for the West Cork Music Festival in June. Its library and gardens – particularly the wisteria around the fountains – are fabulous.

Future Forests (00 353 27 66176; www.futureforests.net) is a tree and shrub nursery on the road between Macroom and Bantry. The emphasis is on sustainability, unusual tree types and natural artworks. The main building is an organic-looking wood structure with a turf roof.

Peninsular pleasures
The most cosmopolitan of the west Cork peninsulas is Mizen Head. Its centre is the village of Skull, where a selection of art and crafts shops, delicatessens, cafés and restaurants have found their niche on the short main street over the years. The Mizen Head Visitor Centre (00 353 28 35115; www.mizenhead.net), housed in old lighthouse buildings, has a wonderfully melodramatic position across a giant chasm. And while you’re down at this end, stop off for a drink and a seafood chowder at O’Sullivans (00 353 28 35319) on the quay in Crookhaven, Ireland’s most south-westerly village.

The great outdoors
The Blackwater is one of Ireland’s finest salmon rivers (for fishing, contact Ballyvolane and Longueville, details in Where to Stay). Walk along the river where you can, and stop for a light lunch at Glanworth Mill (00 353 25 38555; www.iol.ie/glanworth), northwest of Fermoy, in a riverside setting in the lee of Glanworth Castle.

To the southwest, down twisting roads beyond the good-looking town of Macroom, is Gougane Barra (00 353 26 47069; www.gouganebarra.com). Several walks lead off into this forest of pine, ash and silver fir. The main attraction is St Finbarr’s Oratory, a neat and immensely peaceful chapel on an island in a still lake surrounded by cliffs.

Food wars
Skull has been dubbed the food capital of Ireland by the respected food writers Sally and John McKenna, who live locally. But south of Cork, the pretty enough seaside town of Kinsale (www.kinsale.ie) has also long claimed the title, and foodies come here on weekend breaks to sample its 35 restaurants. The town is also stuffed with craft shops and galleries. In Cork city itself the best of the county’s produce is showcased in the English Market (entrance on Princes St). Look out for the Belgian patisserie, the On the Pig’s Back delicatessen and the stall selling the ultimate local speciality, tripe and drisheen (blood sausage). Ballymaloe Cooking School (00 353 21 464 6785; www.ballymaloe-cookery-school.ie) is well known for its residential courses, but you can also come here for the day or overnight and sample some of the students’ output.

Big cheeses
Cheerful, artisan cheesemakers are at work in several corners of County Cork, all with their own secret formulas. None of them is big enough for guided tours, but the Burns family at Ardrahan (00 353 29 78099; www.ardrahancheese.ie) is happy to receive visitors with a bit of warning.

Kissing the stone
Just north-west of the city stands the region’s biggest tourist attraction, Blarney Castle (00 353 21 438 5252; www.blarneycastle.ie), where thousands queue every week to kiss the Blarney Stone in the hope that it will bestow its gift of eloquence upon them. If you do stop here, make time for the Blarney Woollen Mills (00 353 21 451 6111; www.blarney.ie) too, where the best (and worst) of Irish souvenir shopping is to be found.

Emigration tales
A staggering three million people set sail for America from Cork’s huge natural harbour at Cobh between 1815 and 1970, spending their last nights in boarding houses along the shore. Cobh was the Titanic’s last port of call on her fateful journey in 1912, and where the Lusitania was headed when she was torpedoed in 1915. The Queenstown Story (00 353 21 481 3591; www.cobhheritage.com), a visitor centre in a converted railway station on the harbour at Cobh, tells the story of Irish emigration.

Places to stay
● Ballymaloe House, Shangarry (00 353 21 465 2531; www.ballymaloe.com). This 17th-century country house boasts an award-winning restaurant founded by Myrtle Allen, mother of Ballymaloe Cookery School chef Darina. B&B 105-150 euros; dinner 65 euros.
Ballyvolane House, Castlelyons (00 353 25 36349; www.ballyvolanehouse.ie). Aristocratic, Italianate house with lovely gardens and fishing lakes. Six bedrooms
with en suite facilities. B&B 95 euros per person; dinner 47.50 euros.
● Bayview Hotel (00 353 21 4646 746; www.thebayviewhotel.com). Ballycotton is a quiet village in east Cork threaded with peat smoke. The hotel may lack charisma, but its food is excellent and the location above the fishing harbour lovely. Dinner, B&B 120-135 euros per person.
● Blair’s Cove, Durrus (00 353 27 61127; www.blairscove.ie). Sophisticated apartments, self-catering cottages and restaurant run by a Belgian/German couple. B&B 65-110 euros per person.
● Cashelfean Holiday Home, Bantry Bay (00 353 27 61208; www.cashelfean.com). Thirteen carefully remodelled traditional houses in waterside locations by Durrus and Glengarriff, Bantry Bay. Open fires, wonderful views, imaginative interiors. A three-bedroom house costs 500-800 euros per week.
● Longueville House, Mallow (00 353 22 47156; www.longuevillehouse.ie). The O’Callaghans look across the valley towards the ruin of their former family seat, destroyed by Oliver Cromwell. Their 18th-century mansion is now a hotel run by the latest generation, William, a chef. B&B 180-360 euros per room; dinner 60 euros.
● Perryville House, Kinsale (00353 21 4772731; www.perryvillehouse.com) Former sea captain’s house right on the waterfront, now a very upmarket lodge. B&B 200-
380 euros per room.

Places to eat
● Annie’s, Ballydehob (00 353 28 37292). Tiny venue with traditional menu: garlic mussels (9 euros) and roast rack of lamb (25 euros). Booking essential.
● Blair’s Cove, Durrus (00 353 27 61127; www.blairscove.ie). A high-beamed former barn with candelabra on the grand piano and wonderful sea views. Three courses 55 euros.
● Fishy Fishy, Kinsale (00 353 21 4774453). You can’t go wrong with any of the restaurants that have the Kinsale New Good Food Circle logo, but this one is worth singling out. A fishmonger-cum-café where you can be very sure the prawns in your open sandwich (11.50 euros) were landed that morning.

Escape Essentials
Maps
Ordnance Survey Ireland Discovery maps nos 72, 73, 74, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88 and 89 cover Co Cork. Visit www.osi.ie for more information.

Tourist information
Tourism Ireland (0800 039 7000; www.tourismireland.com). Cork Kerry Tourism (00 353 21 4255 100); Kinsale Chamber of Tourism (00 353 21 4774 026; www.kinsale.
ie; www.cometocork.com; www.blackwatervalley.ie; www.westcork.ie. A West Cork garden trail leaflet is available from tourist offices. Accredited west Cork food providers have created a brochure and website (00 353 23 34035; www.fuchsiabrands.com).

Getting there
Aer Lingus flies to Cork from London Heathrow (www.aerlingus.com; 0845 084 4444) and Ryanair from London Stansted (www.ryanair.com; 0871 246 0000). Swansea Cork Ferries travels overnight from Swansea to Cork (www.swansea-cork.ie; 01792 456116).

With thanks to Tourism Ireland and Aer Lingus.

Photo: St Finbarr’s Church, Gougane Barra, West Cork, by Brian Lynch/Failte Ireland Copyright. Visit www.failteireland.ie for more information.