Almost exactly twenty years ago for one of our rare visits to Ireland I chose a sea trip. By train to Pembroke where we boarded the “Innis Fallon”. Soon after sunrise the next day, we watched as steadily she entered and sailed the two and a half miles of the mouth of the River Lee. My husband’s voice comes back to me now “Next stop Cork”, as we passed farms on either side, many of which I knew in former times. A morning in July!
At our final destination, Cobh, my first sight was a great concrete wall, a buttress I guess; it was covered by a wonderful display of wild rock plants. At this I marvelled!
In living memory, Cobh, formerly Queenstown, was a pre-eminent English Naval Base with it’s own dockyard and a major arsenal in Spike Island, which is now favoured by deep sea fishermen.
Cobh has many assets, but what I appreciated most were the variety of wild flowers, with those of seashore, meadow and woodland.
Rose Lynch 26.Sep.2004
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