Great food, and a leap of faith | Kinsale to Killarney

Where does it start? Kinsale

Where does it end? Killarney

How long is it? 103 miles

 

Why is it great?

The lovely sweeping A-road from Kinsale to Killarney takes you through a magnificent panorama of soaring green to your right, crashing waves to our left, and in between a winding road steaming through a panoply of bright villages.

This part of West Cork, you see, has for years been a favourite holiday or retirement haven for Dutch and Germans who arrived, took one look at grey Irish houses, sighed, and got out a paintbrush.

As a result, most villages are now all the colours of the rainbow, although in a tastefully pastel kind of way.

Even better, it’s got great towns at each end of the route, Kinsale and Killarney – and a nice little diversion in the middle.

 

What do I need to know?

Kinsale was just a sleepy fishing village until 12 local hoteliers and restaurateurs formed the Good Food Circle in 1976 to promote gastronomic tourism.

It worked, and then some; today Kinsale has the highest concentration of restaurants in Ireland and is firmly established as Top Nosh Central.

Having said that, the effect has spread to smaller bistros and cafés, so you don’t have to pay top dollar to get great food here.

My top-end recommendations are Man Friday, one of the original Circle members, for a magical harbourside terrace and fabulous seafood, Max’s Wine Bar for a French take on local ingredients, and impressive newcomer Finn’s Table.

Midrange favourites are Fishy Fishy and The Black Pig wine bar, and for pub or café grub, The Spaniard, The Bulman just outside town, Hoby’s and Jim Edward’s.

For information on accommodation, visit www.kinsale.ie, and for restaurants, www.food.kinsale.ie and www.kinsalerestaurants.com.

Killarney’s been a tourist town since local landowner Henry Herbert invited that well known biker Queen Victoria over in 1855 for tea and buns at his Muckross House mansion just outside the town. “Love to,” said Her Majesty, checking her royal diary, “see you in six years.”

Sadly, Henry then spent so much redecorating the place that after HM arrived with her own bed and an entourage of 100, he had to sell it.

Still, Thomas Cook tours soon followed, and today Killarney is buzzing year-round with pubs, restaurants and the clip and clop of horses trotting around the lakes pulling jaunting cars filled with Americans saying: “You know, Harry, this isn’t a bit like Texas”.

Because it’s so popular, book accommodation well ahead, especially in summer.

 

Anything Else?

That nice little diversion in the middle is Priest’s Leap, the highest rideable pass in Ireland at 1,516ft and according to local legend named after a priest who, during the time when Catholicism was banned, escaped from pursuing British soldiers by a miraculous leap from the top on his horse.

We’ve marked it on our route, but after Bantry, you ride north on the open and sweeping N71 through the mountains for 25 miles, then turn right for Gerha then at Gearhanagoul left up the four and a half miles of farm track to Priest's Leap.

It’s patchy tarmac for about half the way, then hard-packed gravel with grass up the middle, and fairly upsie-downsie, but if an off-road wuss like me can breeze through it, anyone can.

And the reward is spectacular, as you climb off the bike at the top and take in glorious views of the mountains sweeping down to gently cradle distant Bantry Bay far below.

Back on the N71, ride on to the lovely coastal village of Glengarriff, nestled between mountain, oak forest and ocean. Its oldest inhabitant, 103-year-old Dutchman Jan Linzel, was a Second World War RAF pilot.