Cork

Forget Kinsale. Stay in a castle in this waterfront Cork village instead.

Castletownshend in Cork

Imagine driving down a hill so steep that you wonder how the horses pulled carts up it. And at the end of this hill is a beautiful little harbour. And overlooking this waterfront setting is the castle where you'll spend the night.

And there's just one pub in the village, but what a pub it is. Its one shop sells the essentials for a couple of hundred locals, rather than kitschy souvenirs for thousands of tourists.

This is the Ireland you see in the movies.

Castletownshend, West Cork

I always stop by Castletownshend for lunch at Mary Ann's on my annual visit to West Cork. Remember, go where locals go and you'll find the best places. All the other tourists will be in Kinsale. A fine place, but starting to get overrun.

Castletownshend is in the best corner of Ireland that everyone misses as they drive the fast route from Kinsale to Killarney. But taking the N71 road instead brings you through a dozen Irish villages that would have you looking in the auctioneers windows imagining what it would be like living here.

Castletownshend is a few miles off this main N71 road and that's a bonus, because you have to know it's there. You won't just stumble upon it.

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The Castle

The village is only 500m long. You'll drive through it in one minute. But that's ok, the big attraction here is your accommodation, the Castle.

It sits on the bank of the water, it's a place where you don't do much. You relax, you read, you dream of being the lord or lady of the manor. You watch the boats bobbing. You relax after a day hunched over the steering wheel.

It only has seven rooms so you may feel like you're a guest in a whodunnit as you chat with the other guests over cocktails before dinner.

It has an unheard of 9.7 rating on Booking.com. I spend more time on Booking than most people spend on social media and have never seen a rating this high, not even the fancy thousand Euro a night five star hotels in Dublin.

The castle is not open for guests on Monday & Tuesday night. I admire this lifestyle choice and confidence from the owners. It also means that it's hard to get a room here. Book early, very early.

🛏️ Check availability at the Castle

More Places to Stay

The Castle is usually booked out, but the hospitality standards in this corner of Cork are unusually high across the board. Here are some alternatives:

Atlantic House B&B | Shearwater Country House | Seascape B&B

Mary Ann's Bar and Restaurant

You won't want to leave the castle, but do. Make sure you go to Mary Ann's bar. This is no backwater shack, this is a bar known around Ireland for its food.

On a nice day, walk through it to the surprising back patio. On a cold day, warm up in the atmospheric, dark, woody bar. If you're lucky, there'll be music.

Buy the delicious brown bread from them to bring on the next leg of your trip. Lather it with homemade jam from a roadside stand.

The Locals

I was just sitting next to the water on a nice day. Doing nothing, but enjoying the view. I got chatting to an old man there and I posted this immediately after. It captures the feelings that you get here.