At some point, a long, long time ago... someone famous (and oft quoted) said "Let there be Light" and there was. Saturday evening saw an amazing crew of blokes come out and work in pitch darkness for 3 hours, seemingly with a very long set of jumper cables - and 'lo, at 8 pm, the mains power was on again after six days. In celebration we immediately ran about turning lights on and off and had a very long, hot shower. Life was and is good. It (almost) seemed a shame to leave bright and early on Sunday morning and head off on a 3 night/4 day road trip we planned a couple of weeks ago. Our mission? To complete the Wild Atlantic Way drive and thus, our circumnavigation of the windy, windy coast of Ireland. First stop was the pretty harbourside town of Kinsale with its forts from the 1600s - very royal in nature - Charles Fort and James Fort you see. We always know we've been seeing and doing a great deal of interesting things... because we had no interest in going in and traipsing about Charles Fort for an hour or two - a good walk about the outside and we were underway to James fort - older, smaller and again a lap around the outside (in fairness... that one was locked up). We had a stroll about town and a look in the church (St Multose) and the shops (particularly Kinsale Crystal - the best we've ever seen). Then we hit the road again and drove to Old Head. The headland itself is home to a very swanky and private golf course, but the views were still astounding and almost "blow you off the cliff edge" winds were threatening to do just that (see today's photo). We had a short walk to the edge then enjoyed our picnic in the car. There was actually a small bridal party getting photos on the cliff side - we were mildly concerned her dress would catch the wind and that would be that... But they were there when we left.

Whilst our part of Ireland was hard hit by Hurricane Ophelia and Storm Brian, the Cork coast was absolutely smashed - as we drove past long sandy beaches we were, in many cases driving on the beach - so much sand had been thrown up onto the road and the beaches themselves were covered in mountains of kelp. We had some highlights to see along the way but sometimes we just turn a corner and get a lovely surprise - today that was Timoleague Friary. Built by the Franciscans in the 1300s on the site of an ancient monastery established by St Molaga, it was massive and open and easy to walk about and read the history of the graves. Timoleague itself has a bit of a story. It was once a thriving, medieval, deep water harbour. In 1755 (as we came to understand during our visit last December), there was a massive, tragic earthquake in Lisbon that killed around 60,000 people. This triggered a 20m high tsunami that travelled 6000 km - as far as the Caribbean. Truly an example of a butterfly flapping it's wings, this tsunami led to Timoleague's harbour being completely silted up - as it stands now its only possible to navigate a small boat through tiny well marked channels - it's just a mud flat estuary. So sleepy Timoleague is just a shadow of it's former self when Spanish merchants would barter their wine and olives for hides and butter in the bustling market place.

As day turned to dusk we came across both a washed out/flooded road and also a massive pine treen completely blocking a road - so Google maps was a godsend as we detoured back and around to our final stop for the day - the Drombeg Stone Circle. We are huge fans of the Netflix series Outlander, so this was right up our alley. Fortunately neither of us was whipped back to the 1600s when we touched the massive stones. Carbon dating of cremated remains within the circle have dated the tomb or sacred site to the later Bronze Age - 1100-800 BC. Fascinating that the winter solstice on 21 December also sees the sun setting in line with the central axis through the stones (well - you know - if the sun is visible).

We were pretty much over driving by this point so were happy to finally make it to the B&B in Union Hall for the night - somewhat Fawlty Towers like (only more expensive). We headed to town (Skibbereen) and found a legendary Chinese joint for some takeaway and headed down to the Union Hall waterfront to enjoy the views and dinner. Quite an early night in the end... The really big driving day starts tomorrow!