Cork City

Just one hour away, Cork has all the entertainment you would expect to find in a City environment. Top quality shopping in the main street, eg Brown Thomas, plus the fabulous English Market which is just packed with every specialist food item from around the world. Good street markets are held weekly, and other, specialist shops include antique shops, auction houses, as well as jewellers, some of which specialise in Celtic silver craft.

Parking is relatively easy in one of the five city centre multi-story car parks, but after 11:00 am it can get congested, so it is advisable to get in early to avoid disappointment.

Craft Shops

Craft shops selling a wide range of traditional and the best of modern Irish crafts can be found at:

• Golden Pheasant Crafts - Courtmacsherry
• Peter Wolstenholm Pottery - Courtmacsherry
• Spiller's Lane (and many others) Clonakilty
• Kinsale - where there are many to be found
• Bandon Pottery - Bandon
• Blarney Woollen Mills - Blarney
• Ballymaloe Cookery shop - Ballymaloe
• Stephen Pearce - Shangarry
• Quills Woollen Mills at Cork and Glengarriff

Festivals

Each year there are festivals in scores of locations all over West Cork and indeed County Cork. Regulars include:

• Cork City Jazz Festival
• Cork City Beer Festival
• Cork City Music Festival
• Bantry House Music Festival
• Fishing Festivals at Ring, Kinsale, Union Hall, and Baltimor.
• Car Rally at Kinsale - vintage and classic.
• Food Festival at Kinsale.
• Rosscarberry Oyster Festival
• Bantry Mussel Festival

And many, many more at various times in the season