Day 58 – July 16, 2025 – Kinsale to Waterville, Ireland
Took a walk this morning knowing we’d be in the car for quite a while today. Another great breakfast with homemade scones, yogurt and eggs/bacon. Grainne and Paddy have been wonderful hosts and have a beautiful house and do a great job. We would definitely stay here again!
We packed up the car and headed to Blarney Castle, which is about 21 miles from Kinsale. It was raining (shock, lol!) the entire time so not much fun. Vance and Michelle wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone, and we didn’t, so we found the café and had a coffee while waiting for them. There isn’t a separate entrance to the castle, which would have been nice to see, so you have no choice but to stand in line even if you don’t want to kiss the stone. Since it was raining, we didn’t walk much of the grounds due to them being so wet. Not the greatest of days for this visit, but that’s part of the journey.
We headed to Kenmare and had lunch at P.F. McCarthys and split the sweet potato and red pepper soup and a salad with grilled chicken and feta cheese and olives. Kenmare is the starting point for the Ring of Kerry drive. There was beautiful scenery along the way.
We stopped at the Staigue Fort in Sneem, which is one of the largest ring forts in Ireland. The walls are 18 ft. high and 13 ft. thick, surrounding a circular area of 90 ft. in diameter. There are two small chambers inside the wall. There are ramparts that can be accessed by a series of steps so that you can stand on top and see the view from all directions. No mortar was used in the building of the fort, and it is guessed it dates to 1st century BC.
After leaving the fort, the drive continued, and we stopped multiple times just for the scenic views. Ireland so far has just been awesome, and the countryside has been amazing!
We made it to Waterville and checked in to The Old Cable House and we are having dinner at their restaurant. We met Connor, the owner, and settled in. The room was what I’d call average, but breakfast is included. It had a queen size bed so tight quarters for us, but it did have a big shower, which was nice. We headed to the restaurant part and met their daughter, Bronagh, aka Mary, who is also the cook. Connor had left to go get fresh mussels and Mary entertained us while getting us all a beer. She’s a delight and we enjoyed chatting with her and look forward to her cooking for us.
Our reservation was for 6 pm and John and I split the seafood mix with pasta. It had hake, prawns, mussels and crab legs all in a white wine sauce and it was delicious! We also had some great garlic bread to go with it.
After dinner we all took a walk around and then Michelle, Vance, and I played Rummikub for a while since John had a meeting and needed to get some work done as well. We will meet up for breakfast tomorrow at 8 and then drive the part of the Ring of Kerry we didn’t do yesterday. Another day down!
