The gateway to West Cork is every bit as magical as you might imagine. Here are the spots I swung by during a flying visit this past weekend.
If there’s one thing I love most in this life, it’s whimsy, and there are few places more whimsical than a seaside town on the road to West Cork. Kinsale is, ostensibly, a village I’m pretty sure I dreamed up as a child and mustered into existence. It’s colourful and quaint and floods your system with dopamine, so naturally, I felt it only fitting that I share an itinerary of the must-see spots for those planning a quick trip.
Leaving from Cork city on the Kinsale Connect bus service, it’s a 40-minute spin that deposits you directly into the town carpark. We beelined straight for Cronins gift shop. A store built for endless pottering, the shelves are heaving with the best of the best in Irish craftsmanship. Mugs from Nicholas Mosse, blankets and scarves from McNutts, Foxford and Aran Woollen Mills, and heaps of pottery, wall art and candles.
They’ve got a selection of 100% cotton kimono-style robes that I kept making eye contact with and will have to urgently return for. In short, it’s one of those shops you go into when you don’t know what to get someone for their birthday, and while browsing, you forget all about said someone and come out bankrupt with armfuls of gorgeous, gorgeous bits.
From there, we made our way to Stone Mad, which is like being inside the Genie’s lamp from Aladdin. It’s made up of two rooms that look like what you hoped your grown-up bedroom would look like as a child, before you became wise to the realities of the rental crisis. Every inch of the shop shimmers and glints with some treasure or another, and if you were a magpie, I imagine you would lose your mind completely. Twinkly jewellery, trinket boxes, beautiful clothes and lush homeware abound. Leaving is like the opposite of when you finish in the cinema and are surprised it’s still bright — the outside world looks extremely dull in its wake.
By chance, we wandered by Sister Vintage, a gorgeously charming boutique specialising in a curated selection of vintage clothes and accessories. The tags are detailed with the era of the piece and the price point is surprisingly reasonable. They also stock Bogha Bags, which I have completely fallen in love with. These crossbody or make-up bags are handmade from vintage and deadstock fabrics, and the bows and ruffles make them extra adorable.
A coffee pitstop was needed (I’m lying, it was a chai latte pitstop), and I’m so happy we stumbled upon Wild + Tame. It’s just dripping with personality, from the hand-beaded friendship bracelets to their own merchandise, it’s buzzy and bright and has a disco ball hanging next to arrangements of dried flowers for god’s sake — how could you not adore it? They’re also dog-friendly!
I had seen a lot online (read: TikTok) about Prim’s Bookshop, and it was absolutely worth the hype. It’s a secondhand bookshop by day, transforming into a wine and sherry bar come 5pm, oozing with ambient lighting, flickering candles and excellent music choices. They’ve got a record player and shelves of vinyl, and from a nose around their Instagram, they host live music performances pretty regularly.
Choosing a place for dinner was an extremely difficult task, given that many of the restaurants are decorated with many (many, many) plaques and badges of honour. It’s got not one but two Michelin-star eateries (Rare and Bastion) and, on the other end of the spectrum, chippers and Chinese takeaways that very nearly got the better of me.
In the end, we settled on The Black Pig, and we absolutely made the right decision. It’s a small plates and wine spot, selling 200 varieties by bottle and over 100 by glass, so all the organic/biodynamic/natural wine lovers will find themselves drowning in choice. The food selection is also organic and adapts to the season, using the best of local produce. We got four plates to share between the two of us and were filled to bursting. The very lovely staff helped us in all decisions because, it feels necessary to mention, we are two Libra ladies who are also very (read: too) polite to one another.
We then gravitated towards The Greyhound and Market Bar for a nightcap. Apparently, the pub’s history stretches back to 1690, and it’s got all the dim, moody candlelight and good music required to make it extremely cosy and almost impossible to leave. But, alas, we did, jumping on the 10pm Bus Éireann service (Route 226) back to Cork city, rosy cheeked and content. This keeps running until 12pm, if you fancy prolonging your time in paradise.
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