Cork – Mallow – T & G Travels

Days 31 - Castlemaine to Bweeng, Ireland

Saturday 13th September, 2025 - Cork and Mallow, Ireland

Left Leabrook House this morning and headed straight through to Cork City. Arrived at 10:30, found a park near the city centre and set out to explore. The best part, it was not raining and fine weather for a change !

Cork centre is located on a river island with the River Lee flowing both sides of it. This city is the second largest in Republic of Ireland and was a pleasant surprise for us, the streets are a mixture of new and old architecture with still a lot of old dominating the narrow laneways. Whilst exploring we stumbled onto the English Market which was in full swing with fresh foods, fish, meats and cheeses.

We came across a Mountain Warehouse shop where Graeme purchased a pair of pants and shoes and Tania a pair of walking boots. With a map in hand that marked our way over the past 4 hours, we enjoyed Cork as much as any city so far in Ireland.

We left just after 14:00 to make our way to our accommodation for the next 2 nights, in a village called Bweeng, about a 30 minute drive out of Cork. It boasts 1 bar that doesn't serve food, a mobile takeaway selling burgers and chips, and a mobile barber van on the weekends !

Carol checked us in and offered to do a load of laundry for us which was nice of her. We have a microwave, toaster and kettle in our room so we needed a supermarket, the closest one being in the town of Mallow which is a 15 minute drive from Bweeng. Mallow was another surprise, a really quaint village with lots of old architecture. Ham and salad for dinner followed by a raspberry Panna cotta in our room, with Graeme updating our blog and spending time planning activities for tomorrow.