Ireland Part 1 - North West bound trip

Ireland Part 1 - North West bound trip
Overall impression so far is that Ireland is a very wet and sparsely populated country with folks from Cork buying up a lot of the land and old homes on the West coast. The economic growth of Ireland seems to have benefited people in
the larger urban centres but there is no evidence to show the same is true in the smaller towns and villages. Depletion of fish and seafood stocks are creating economic hardship along the coast. Tourism from EU countries as well as the major Irish centres is filling in the income gap to a small degree. Many of the tourist shops are owned by chains or outsiders who hire immigrant EU labour for the busy months. Little of the money stays in the villages. The tourist goods are manufactured in the Far
East, identified as Irish Designed and priced to the affluent wallet. Traditional music, if you can find it, is generally of very poor quality or is similar to a grade school concert with the village children performing. Modern rock or current top 10 hits seem to be the mainstay of most pub bands. The only things about Ireland that have met my expectations are the lush green growth, poor villages, hatred of the British and the taste of real draft Guinness.
Comments follow for the various Ports of Call so far visited.
Crosshaven - no anchorage - use docks or moorings
We stayed at the Royal Cork Yacht Club to rest up from the Azores crossing, filled water tanks, did laundry, updated the web site and tried to find traditional Irish music. Crosshaven is a small village with a large number of pubs and restaurants priced to the tourist trade with marginal quality and no traditional music of any kind (while we were there). The RCYC had the best food by far. Went to Cork by taxi and returned by bus. The Cork marine store was poorly stocked and very expensive. Cork
was impressive with an interesting mixture of new and old architecture. All of the chain stores were in evidence. A very busy city teeming with people from all over the EU. Cork is the second largest city in Ireland after Dublin.
Castlehaven - good anchorage
Anchored off a castle ruin in Castletownshend , visited a church (Protestant … the Catholic one is 2 miles out of town), attached graveyard and a highly recommended local restaurant for lunch. We met an avid sailor and his family who were from Cork and had a summer place in the village. This was a British stronghold up until Irish independence.
Sherkin Island (Baltimore) - good anchorage
Anchored off castle ruin and did a walking tour of part of the island … Horseshoe Bay … the abandoned Northern fishing village … the local school. Met the same fellow from Castlehaven and a sailor that we had met in the Azores. The sailor was single-handing a 36-foot sloop on his way to Norway.
Schull- good anchorage but hard to find
A very busy harbour filled with commercial fishing and tourist boats. The town has a great bookstore, grocery stores, a bank, several pubs and a misnamed farmers market. At night the street is filled with the overflow from the pubs and young drunks.
Kitchen Cove (Dunmanus Bay) - good anchorage
A pub and a plaque commemorating the Air India crash. We found the pub but were unaware of the plaque until after we had left. The small village was very poor, the pub in great need of repair, the locals resigned to a bleak future.
The anchorage held a couple of tourist sailboats as well as one cute fishing boat.
Glengarriff (Bantry Bay) - marginal anchorage - use moorings
We had a very disappointing lunch at a highly recommended hotel but found a lively tourist-catering village not far way. An island off the mainland was stocked with flora from all parts of the world and developed as a private garden. It is now owned and operated by the government as a park. We found some "traditional" music here but it was aimed at the mainly EU cliental.
Dunboy Cove - good anchorage
A historically significant site since it contains the Dunboy castle ruins (blown up by the English in 1602) and the Dunboy mansion ruins (burned by the IRA in 1921). There is now a major hotel/condo redevelopment project on the site.
Sneem (Kenmar River) - good anchorage
The anchorage is two miles from the village up a river that dries out at low tide. We were given a lift to town by a women from Cork who is building a summer home in the village … much to the chagrin of her husband who has a boat and wants to sail. The village was full of tourists from Cork and the EU.
Darrynane - marginal anchorage … watch drying rock
An almost landlocked port that requires careful navigation to enter at anything but high tide. Large beach area, sailing school, water sports, pub and "trailer park" for the tourists from Cork and beyond. Finally met some Irish that were not from Cork.
Portmagee- no anchorage - use moorings
The starting place for our Skellig adventure. We had to take a mooring ball far from town since there was no place to anchor. Landing the dinghy was a challenge since there were no facilities for small boats at the town dock. All of the space was reserved for local fisherman or tour boats. We managed to get seats on a tour boat (40 Euros each) that made the trip to Skellig Michael. Jane made it to the monastic site 200 metres above sea level while Brian stayed tending the birds at sea level. The
village is again focused on the tourist trade but seems to be in a better state of repair than others. Several suburban style housing developments are evident near the village.
Ventry Bay - good anchorage
There is a post office and pub catering to a large vacationing population. A sand beach attracts, a "trailer park" and scores of "B&Bs" provide accommodation. Activities range from Scuba diving, swimming, horse back riding and fishing. We met folks from the US and Cork but no locals.
Dingle - no anchorage - use marina