Castelownbere

We had originally planned to stay five nights in Castletownbere. This was decided based on the following assumptions: 1.) The town was easy to get into and out of so we could take day trips from there. 2.) The town was exceptionally charming, inspiring a writer to put a local bar on the cover of his book because he loved it so much. 3.) The bed and breakfast we had chosen was going to be nice and comfortable. Not a single one of these assumptions was accurate.

In reality the roads getting into town were terrible, treacherous, and would take us an hour and a half to get to a major motorway. Second, the town was not at all charming. Sure, we found the bar that was on the cover of the book, but it was crap. And third, the bed and breakfast was awful, but we got into town at around 9:30 PM, and it was too late to find another option. We never unpacked as we knew immediately that we would not be staying another night in the room, let alone in town.

I asked Pauline what the author had to say about this town that made her want to book five nights here. At this point she admitted she had not yet made it to that chapter. I read the chapter that night, and it revealed the town to be a working fishing village (this much we knew). He also revealed these local fishermen to be a bunch of thugs who walked around the town in packs, and did not produce an atmosphere that any tourist should seek out. And the bar on the cover of the book? Turns out the only reason the author himself went to Castletownbere was because he was on a mission to go to bars that had his last name, McCarthy. He was lucky enough to be at the bar on the birthday of the owner and was invited to her party which was a real rager. In short, he loved the bar for reasons we could never replicate.

The bright side of this story? Staying in town would never have given us the chance to see as much of the wonderful towns and countryside over the following four days. Also, Pauline was finally able to realize her dream of travelling around the countryside without any idea where you were going to stay next. This turned out to work just fine.

Below is a view of the bay from the window of our bed and breakfast. It was extremely wet and windy that day, which did not do any favors for the ambiance of the place.