Kinsale

A historic port and fishing town at the mouth of the Bandon, about twenty-five kilometres south of Cork, whose Irish name means head of the brine. It is known now for its restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Bastion, and for its gourmet food festivals. Its strategic position left it well fortified: Desmond Castle of about 1500, also called the French Prison; James Fort, a seventeenth-century pentagonal bastion fort on the Castlepark peninsula; and Charles Fort, a partly restored star fort of 1677 at Summercove. St Multose church dates from 1190.