Youghal

I woke up at 4 am with the birds and went for a walk down the street to the lighthouse and

then back to the park in front of the hotel.

There was, of course, no one out yet, not even the sun.

Took a few pictures of the water and some kind of bird out on the water that, with the light the way it was, made it look like the lock ness monster in away.

In the middle of the park was a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh and around the base were four plaques in remembrance of four Irishmen who were

killed by the British in 1798. There was an uprising in Ireland that year and many on both sides were killed. I found out that the Queen gave Sir Raleigh the town of Youghal for his services to the country. Nice gift.

Many Irish left during those times. I know that in our family, grandmas side came earlier than the uprising. Grandpas family, who were from Cork, although I don’t know if they were from

county Cork or City Cork, came over to Canada in the late 1700’s.

I wondered

if we were related to one of these men in particular. O’Brien is a common Irish name, but you never know. It is possible.

The sunrise was golden.

I found my way around to the back of the hotel looking for the birds that I could hear. Starlings, doves and finches were what I saw.

Went back inside and chatted with the desk clerk. He was from Poland and had some fun stories about his first year in Ireland.

I used face book to let everyone know that we were alive and well and having a great time and went up to the room at twenty to seven. I was surprised to find Maureen awake. the dining room opened at 730 so we made plans to have breakfast at 8.

I went downstairs to the dining room had a cup of tea and updated our journal.

Maureen joined me and we had a lovely Irish breakfast. Tea for me and coffee for Maureen, eggs, soda bread and fruit. I believe that Maureen tried the black sausage or black bread and I believe she enjoyed it.

We checked out and only had a bit of trouble backing out of the parking spot. Turned out we were on a wee bit of a slope down and each time Maureen took her foot off the clutch, before she could get the car actually going in reverse, we rolled a little bit closer to the hotel and the pole that was in front of the car.

It was a little tense.

In the end a kind gentleman backed the car up and helped us to be on our way.

It was that old driving with everything on the opposite side of the car

thing that was causing the difficulty.

But we and the car and the hotel all survived. We went into town, all of three blocks I think, and parked at the Heritage center. Pulled out card number 34 of my Village Walks of Ireland and went on a walking tour.

Our stroll in the warm sunshine took us past quays or docking areas

for boats and up to the main street with lots of little shops and cafes.

Maureen needed batteries for her camera and we found a 15th century priory sort of.

The only original thing left of it was the door, the arch

and a small hall behind as most of it had been converted to shops many years ago and the plaque which told us that is used to be a priory.

It was a most charming town and quite busy too. It is extraordinary that all the shops are brightly coloured so when you look down the street it is like a rainbow. What is common in Ireland is Not so common for us.

We also stopped into Mrs Quinn's Charity Shop for the blind and we each picked up something.

I got a suit and a scarf and I actually don't recall what Maureen got.We had fun trying on skirts and blouses and things made in ireland and france and england. It really was exotic even though it was second hand.

I love the names of streets and lanes here.

We are by this time used to looking up on the buildings for street names. Our little card map sends us straight up the main road to see the 15th century castle and the 18th century Dutch renaissance house but first we returned to the car with our purchases and then came back to continue on our way, arms unimpeded and loaded up with new batteries.

We proceeded to the Red house and Tynte’s Castle.

Both of these were impressive.

The Red house is a private residence not open to tours so you cannot go inside. I can only imagine what the interior was like but from the outside it was lovely.

What must living there be like for the owners? maybe they have gotten used to it by now.

Having people taking pictures and hanging around reading your historic information plague. Right across the street from the Red House is Tynte’s Castle, which is more of a fortified large home or a kind of smallish castle, but lovely nonetheless.

We wanted to go to Church street and see St Mary’s Collegiate Church but we missed the road somehow and

ended up walking all the way up and around the Wall.

The town of Youghal was one of the only towns in the 13th century to be surrounded by a wall and much of the original wall remains. It was very high and wide and long. there are turrets and crosses in the stone and lovely old crests of lions. Repairs were being done at the time and so we could not go through this one part of the wall into the garden

of the church that we wanted to get to. Oh well, Fate. There were some great views of the bay and the city from up there on the hill. From the end of the wall are some stairs going all the way

down to the Clock Gate where they hung the Irish gentlemen who had plaques in the park. It was quite interesting as a navigational experience for us as it is on the main street and you have to drive or walk through the arch that seems to be only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. Once we had safely navigated our way through the arch we went back to the Heritage Center car and bought postcards, stamps and souvenirs. Next we organized the car and ourselves and headed out to City Cork.

Now in the hotel we had seen pictures of the Titanic as Youghal had been one of its last ports of call before its fateful first and last voyage. There were also pictures of a great beach that was supposedly in Youghal but we had not so far seen any sign of this beach and could not figure out where along the bay it might be. I thought maybe at low tide it was in front of the hotel but could not be sure as I had, I thought, seen all the tides

and there had been no beach. As we headed out of town and past the hotel and past the lighthouse around the corner came into view this magnificent sandy beach. If we had known we might have spent a little less time walking around the wall and a little bit more exploring the other side of the town. Oh well, next time.

On to Cork.