Cork: Elizabeth Fort

With access to a kitchenette, I could have breakfast in house and not have to dress up to eat out while hungry. I had made sure to buy not too much cereal and just enough soy milk for my stay. Temperatures were in high teens low twenties, very pleasant, so I got indolent and slept in.

I had to see a bit of Cork to justify my sojourn so I picked Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral and Elizabeth Fort for the day. Both were minutes walk away from the very central student accommodation.

I didn't go inside, but I must say it's a handsome looking cathedral, with the rotunda, or is it an octagon?

Elizabeth Fort was just a stone's throw away and entry is free. In this photo taken from the fort you can see that it overlooks a bend in the River Lee, actually its south branch. Much of Cork's centre is on a fluvial island between the branches. The previously featured Counting House is in side view, and the brick tops of my accommodation are peeking out behind.

After passing through the entry portal, one will see this main building.

I had to look around a little to find the steps to get onto the rampart.

I had a look at the main building first. There was an interesting display about Cork women convicts who were held in Elizabeth Fort, subsequently sent out to Australia, then came to play important roles in the life of the colony.

This was an unexpected link to Australia to happen upon. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been surprising as many of the people sent to Australia were Irish who had fallen foul of the harsh laws of the time.

Time to look at the ramparts. As is usual with fortifications that are now exhibits, they have placed dummies of soldiers and materiel at various points.

Weapons too of course.

The northern section.

Looking down on the city.

And across to Saint Fin Barre's.

To do with the cannons.

The sign claimed that the phrase cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey was coined because the holder was called a brass monkey and in cold weather, the contraction of the cannon balls, or was it the monkey, would make the balls topple out of the pyramid. However elsewhere it's said that a calculation shows that the amount of shrinkage would not be enough to make this happen. So the phrase is not explained.

And that was the end of that little excursion. I crossed the Lee again in search of lunch.

I decided to get it at The English Market again and it was this gourmet sausage in a roll.

I also took pictures of other stalls. This was probably the same stall, O'Flynn, that supplied the sausage.

Bread stall.

Fruitier, opposite the preserves stall from yesterday as you can see from the olives.

In the evening, I decided to get a takeaway pork katsu-don from this Japanese eatery I had spotted downhill from Elizabeth Fort.

Somehow between ordering and fulfillment, the pork katsu-don turned into a chicken katsu-don. That I didn't mind so much as the mayo that they used in the salad. I know it's normal for many Japanese dishes, I just wish they wouldn't use it so often and could make it optional. That's just me though.

Otherwise it tasted alright, and the eatery was probably one of the better Japanese eateries in Ireland.