On Sunday, June 30, I took a bus from Cork to the village of Glengariff. Ireland has a reasonable bus system that connects the various villages on the peninsula.

I spent Monday in Glengariff. Garnish Island is in the harbor of Glengariff and has a beautiful garden on it. Apparently there wasn’t much on the island for a while other than a Martello tower at the British built in 1805 when they were concerned that Napoleon would try to invade. There are numerous of these Martello towers around the coast of Ireland.

In 1910, a British politician named John Bryce bought the island from the war office and spent a number of years working with a garden designer and a gardener to put a garden and a house over on the island. The house never got built but they put some lovely gardens in place. His son gave the island to the nation of Ireland and it is maintained by the government.

I took a little ferry boat over to the island.

A seal out on the rocks in the harbor.

This yacht pulled into the harbor overnight. According to the ferry captain, it belongs to an Italian candy billionaire, Augusto Perfetti.



Some photos of the garden. 

Some photos of the Martello tower.

A few shots of the village.

For supper, I had my first plate of fish and chips. The green stuff is mushy peas, which apparently is a common side to fish and chips.