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SKIBBEREEN |
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Cheerful SKIBBEREEN , smartly painted and set on the River Illen, is
the main service and administrative centre for the south of west Cork.
This traditional role is still remarkably alive: on Wednesdays the
cattle market still operates, drawing crowds from the surrounding
country, and every Friday afternoon there's the regular country market.
For travellers, it's a good place to stock up or to stop over - there
are plenty of supermarkets, a smattering of health-food shops and delis,
and plenty of pubs.
The West Cork ArtsCentre on North Street (Mon-Sat 10am-6pm) is worth
checking out. It hosts monthly exhibitions which can be first-rate,
stages occasional music and dance performances, and has a reference and
slide library through which you can locate local artists. The heritage
centre , on Upper Bridge Street (July to mid-Sept daily 10am-6pm;
£3/¬3.81) displays two very different exhibitions: "The Great Famine
Commemorative Exhibition" offers a vivid and sobering account of the
Famine of the 1840s: Skibbereen was particularly affected by the Famine
and around 10,000 famine victims lie buried nearby. The second of the
two exhibitions celebrates the abundant marine life of nearby Lough Hyne
and sets out to explain the survival of a range of species - from corals,
anemones and sea-squirts to goby-fish and sea slugs - this last found
only here and in the Mediterranean Sea.
The tourist office (June-Aug Mon-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 10am-1pm & 2.15-6pm;
Sept-May Mon-Fri 9.15am-5.30pm; tel 028/21766) is on North Street and
will help with accommodation. For B&Bs Ilenroy House , 10 North St (tel
028/22751; £55-70/¬69.84-88.88) and The Ivanhoe (tel 028/21749;
£33-40/¬41.90-50.79), further along at no. 67 are a couple of
comfortable, central options. There's a good IHH hostel , The Russagh
Mill Hostel , a mile out on the Castletownshend Road, (closed Dec to mid-March;
tel 028/22451), a beautifully renovated mill house. Mick Murphy, the
hostel manager, is happy to talk to visitors about his Everest climb in
1993, and leads hillwalking, canoeing and sail-boarding activities most
days (£8-10/¬10.16-12.70 per day).
You can get Bus Éireann information from O'Cahalanes in Bridge Street,
and rent bikes from N.W. Roycroft and Son in Ilen Street (tel 028/21235;
£7.50/¬9.52).
There are a handful of decent places to eat in town: Yin Yang , 12
Bridge St, is a wholefood shop and café that serves tasty, nutritious
and cheap lunches, soups and teas; you can tuck into good budget meals
at The Stove café on Main Street, and Bernard's on the same street
serves good pub food (till 9pm). Kalbo's Bistro , 48 North St (tel
028/21515), has an informal café atmosphere and is something of a
favourite, offering inexpensive filled pittas and home-cooked lunches
and a moderately priced, varied and enticing evening menu. There's no
shortage of bars: Baby Hannah's , 42 Bridge St, is a lively young place
and occasionally has rock music; for traditional music there's Sheehy's
on the square, or you might try The Corner Bar , 37 Bridge St.
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