Old Cork...

We took a trip to Cork yesterday: I spent the afternoon with my sister and C visited a friend. I was partly going to visit an art exhibition. As we were walking over, I asked my sister about the Elizabeth Fort, since I'd spotted it the night before on Google Maps when doing some planning. She and her husband said that they'd looked at it once but it wasn't really worth visiting - however, as we were passing the bottom of the street it was at the top of (literally, Cork is full of hills), we swung by - and it definitely was worth a visit. It was a very grey overcast day just turning to drizzle and not very suitable for photography but we enjoyed a walk around the walls and they enjoyed picking out all the landmark buildings.

Right beside it is St. Fin Barre's cathedral - and the golden angel and just-turning beech foliage were a great match.

It was also interesting to see all the different rods used for cleaning and loading the cannon.

The top one with the hook was for cleaning out debris left from the previous firing. The next one down with the sponge was used for cleaning the barrel prior to re-loading again. The scoop was for putting in an accurate measure of gunpowder, and finally the ramrod was for tamping it in. 

Someone appears to think that good knots won't hold in the current windy season! This was the base of the flagstaff. 

I have often seen this vintage store as it's just across the road from where I used to get the coach when I was visiting my dad. I've even been into it more than once for a browse around, and I knew it included a coffee shop - but for some reason I never noticed the Italian coffee pot on the shop front before. With major roadworks on the quays it wasn't even possible to get a good photograph of it.