Kinsale and Cobh - Ireland 2014 - page 282

By Plane: Cork Airport is a handy entry point into (or exit point from) Ireland. Some
travelers (with limited time and no interest in urban Dublin) choose to enter Ireland here
to focus on the island's scenic south and west. Located four miles south of Cork city (on
N-27/R-600 to Kinsale, a 30-minute drive away), it offers connecting flights from London
Heathrow on Aer Lingus, London Stansted on Ryanair, and Belfast on Aer Arann. More
distant connections can be made from Munich, Amsterdam, Paris, Warsaw, and Málaga
(tel. [phone], airport code: ORK, www.corkairport.com ) . Citylink airport buses run
hourly to Kinsale (only 4/day on Sunday) and less frequently to other destinations, includ-
ing Galway (6/day, 3.75 hours).
To sleep near Cork Airport, consider $$ Radisson Blu Cork Airport (Db-€89-109
Mon-Thu, €79-99 Fri-Sun, book online for best prices, tel. [phone],
www.radissonblu.com ).
More Sights in and near County Cork
These sights are convenient stops when connecting Kinsale and Cobh to Waterford (to the
east) or the Ring of Kerry (to the west).
Between Waterford and Kinsale
If you're driving from Waterford (see previous chapter) to Cobh and Kinsale, you can eas-
ily visit these sights just off N-25 (listed roughly from east to west).
Ardmore
This funky little beach resort, with a famous ruined church and round tower, is a handy
stop (just east of Youghal, 3 miles/5 km south of N-25 between Waterford and Cobh). A
couple of buses run daily from Ardmore to Cork and to Waterford.
This humble little port town is just a line of pastel houses that appear frightened by the
sea. Its beach claims (very modestly) to be “the most swimmable in Ireland.”
The town's historic claim to fame: Christianity came to Ireland here first (thanks to St.
Declan, who arrived in A.D. 416—15 years before St. Patrick...but with a weaker public-
relations team). As if to proclaim that feat with an 800-year-old exclamation mark, one of
Ireland's finest examples of a round tower stands perfectly intact, 97 feet above an evoc-
ative graveyard and a ruined church (noted for the faint remains of some early Christian