Cork and back to Dublin

 My friend Paul reconnected me with his sister Heather, who lives in Cork and had stayed with me in Shanghai back in 2008. She was super keen to show me her part of the world. So on Wednesday we arranged to meet in the carpark of B&Q (a smaller version of Bunnings) we went into the city centre and had a lovely lunch at the Nano Nagle Centre. It is a lovely oasis in the middle of the city. After lunch we wandered around the gardens, cemetery and museum. I was pleased to see the Tasmanian Presentation Sisters schools were the highlighted schools for Australia in the museum. 

Then we headed to Blarney Castle as this used to be Heather's favourite place to walk her dog until they banned dogs a few years ago. We had a lovely wander around the gardens and watched some people kiss the Blarney Stone. I used my dodgy knee as a good excuse not to climb all those steps or lean over backwards. 

Heather thinks this crochet might have been from a yarn project at the castle she was involved in a decade ago.

Blarney House, still lived in but on a very part time because.

On Thursday morning Heather met me at my BnB in Midleton and as it was raining we went to the lovely Hedgehog Fibres. Whilst Heather had a custom fibre bag made up, I browsed their selection and made an unplanned purchase of some unusual alpaca and silk lace weight boucle yarn that they had a sample cardigan knitted in. 

We then headed to the island of Fota, visiting Fota House for lunch and a wander around their arboretum and gardens. Then we headed to the next island, Cobh. Heather and Paul's family had lived there for many years, so there were lots of sights to show me such as their old house, school and the cathedral. Inside the cathedral looked very old but was actually only finished in 1919.

A very informative toilet door.

Apparently people are being encouraged to build insect homes in their gardens.

Paul's childhood home, very different to most Irish houses I saw.

Cobh Cathedral

Cobh is built on the side of a hill, I couldn't believe how steep it was in places. 

We finished up down on the harbour, visiting the emigration museum. Most ships final port in Ireland was Cobh, including the Titanic. Australia got many mentions throughout the museum, with Tasmania even getting a few. After a lovely dinner of local fish it was time to say our goodbyes. 

Cork gin seemed an appropriate beverage with my dinner. 

Today my goal was to stop in Waterford on my way back to Dublin to check out the Edmund Rice Centre as several friends had recommended it. Unfortunately on arrival I discovered it was mostly closed for renovations. I did get to visit the chapel, I'm not sure Edmund Rice would approve of his coffin being the focal point of a chapel? 

Some quick online research led me to discover one of the oldest woollen Mills in Ireland was only 40 minutes north and not that far off my route back to Dublin. It turned out to be a delightful visit and probably my favourite woollen mill I visited. Had a lovely talk with one of the staff about the realities of the Irish woollen industry, they are the only mill that uses 100% Irish wool. They source their wool from 8 farms near Galway, the vast majority of sheep in Ireland being for meat these days. 

So 2000km and 11 days later I'm back in Dublin, ready to fly to Iceland tomorrow morning.