Cobh, Ireland
May 1, 2023
For information about the country of Ireland, please see my post on Dublin. This post will focus primarily on the towns of Cobh and Kinsale.
Cobh, in Irish An Cóbh, is a seaport and naval station in County Cork, Ireland, on the south side of Great Island and on a hill above the harbor of Cork city. The Cathedral of St. Colman crowns the hill.
Here are a few more shots of Cobh:
In 1838 the steamer Sirius set out from Cobh to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, taking 18 1/2 days. Renamed Queenstown in honor of Queen Victoria in 1849, the town retained this name until 1922. Cobh became a military and naval center and port of embarkation for troops, and it remains the chief Irish port of call for transatlantic liners. The Titanic sailed from Cobh in 1912.
Those among you of Irish descent have a very good chance that you have ancestors that emigrated to America from Cobh. Janice’s grandmother sailed to America from Queenstown (Cobh) in 1901.
The population of Cobh in 2011 was around 13,000.
Cork, in Irish Corcaigh, is a county in the province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. The largest county in Ireland, Cork is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean (south) and by Counties Waterford and Tipperary (east), Limerick (north), and Kerry (west). The county seat, Cork city, in the south-central part of the county, is administratively independent.
Cork has long east-west ridges forming uplands and hills. Around one-third of its area is rough pasture, and farmlands that climb as high as 800 feet and line the valleys of such east-flowing rivers as the Blackwater, the Bride, the Lee, and the Bandon. In east and central Cork are broad valleys and lowlands, which give way in the west to narrower valleys with coastal lowlands backed by high mountains. Around Bantry and Dunmanus bays are long, scenic promontories such as Beare Peninsula.
At the head of Bantry Bay is Glengariff, where subtropical vegetation survives because of the mild winters.
Departing from Cobh, we boarded a motorcoach for a tour through Cork’s charming countryside and traveled via the Lee Tunnel to beautiful Kinsale. Upon arrival, we took advantage of a photo stop at Charles Fort overlooking the wide expanse of Kinsale Harbour, and at the town itself.
From here, we drove the short distance to the town, and strolled in the city center.
Kinsale, in Irish Cionn tSaile, is a market town and seaport of County Cork. It is situated on Kinsale Harbour, at the estuary of the River Bandon. The present town dates mainly to the 18th century, but earlier it belonged to the De Courcis family. It received a charter of incorporation from Edward III (reigned 1327–77). Kinsale was captured by the Spaniards and retaken by the English in 1601. For the next several centuries, it was an important garrison and port town. William Penn, an English Quaker and the founder of Pennsylvania, and his father held office in the town. With the neighboring villages of Scilly and Summer Cove, Kinsale is much frequented by visitors and hosts an annual regatta. A wine museum is located in Desmond Castle, a former customs house that was built in the 15th century.
St. Multose, a medieval church built in the late 12th century, is among the Church of Ireland’s oldest churches.
The graveyard on the grounds of St. Multose has graves of drowning victims from the Lusitania washed up onshore in May 1915.
The town has a fishery pier and a harbor and is a sport fishing center. Manufactured products include sheet steel, electrical components, and yacht equipment. Traditional craft shops sell pottery, crystal, and metalworks. Natural gas is also produced. The population of Kinsale in 2011 was around 5,000.
Kinsale is a winner of the European prize for Tourism & the Environment, Entente Florale, National Tidy Town and Gourmet Capital awards. It lies snugly between hills and valley, safely sheltered by the rounded contours of its beautiful harbor. Founded by the Anglo Normans in 1177, Kinsale was a magnificent naval base in the 17th and 18th centuries, with a degree of prosperity uncommon for Ireland. Kinsale owes its character to the fact that it was a garrison town and a port of consequence for more than 300 years — hence the magnificent Georgian homes and the Dutch influence in its architecture. It was also the natural landfall for all the great sailing ships from the continent and the Americas.
From Kinsale, we drove along the coast before turning inland via Inishannon for a photo stop overlooking the River Bandon; then, the motorcoach returned to Cobh and the ship.
As our voyage winds down, we sailed southwest to Ponta Delgada, Azores.
