Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [290]
Eating
Cashel has eating choices up and down the price scale, some excellent. The superb local blue cheese can be found on many menus.
Henry’s Fine Foods ( 086 894 3707; 5 Main St; meals from €5; 9am-6pm) And fine it is. Local ham and cheese features in many a lunch item; definitely partake. The eggs are free range and there are homemade jellies, jams and chutneys for sale.
Bake House ( 062-61680; 7 Main St; meals €5-8; 9am-5.30pm) Head for this busy cafe for tea and coffee, breakfast, or a light lunch. Try the tasty Cashel blue-cheese quiche. Across from the Cashel Heritage Town Centre, ponder the passing parade at tables out front.
Cafe Hans ( 062-63660; Dominic St; mains €10-20; noon-5pm Tue-Sat) Competition for the 32 seats is fierce at this casual cafe run by the same family who run Chez Hans (below). There’s a terrific selection of salads (the Caesar is always a winner), open sandwiches and fish, shellfish, lamb and vegetarian dishes, with a discerning wine selection and mouth-watering desserts. Get there early or after the rush, or expect to queue.
Chez Hans ( 062-61177; www.chezhans.net; Dominic St; 3 courses €40-60; 6-10pm Tue-Sat) Since 1968 this former church has been a place of worship for foodies from all over Ireland and, for that matter, the world. Still as fresh and inventive as ever, the superb restaurant gives its blessing to all manner of local foods, which are prepared simply and with elegance. Some of the wines come from Chef Hans’ own vineyards in Germany. Book ahead.
Drinking
Cashel has a number of quality pubs.
Davern’s ( 062-61121; 20 Main St) This bar is popular for a good chat. There’s live music some nights, which you may or may not hear tucked away in one of the many crags and corners of this old, old pub.
Ryan’s ( 062-62688; Ladyswell St) Locals chew the fat, share the gossip and gulp the pint at this congenial place with a large beer garden that really is a garden.
Getting There & Away
Bus Éireann (www.buseireann.ie) runs eight buses daily between Cashel and Cork (€12, 1½ hours) via Cahir (€4.50, 20 minutes, six to eight daily) and Fermoy. There is one bus daily to Thurles (€6, 30 minutes) where you can connect to trains on the Dublin–Limerick line. The bus stop for Cork is outside the Bake House on Main St. The Dublin stop (€12, three hours, six daily) is opposite. Tickets are available from the nearby Spar shop or you can buy them on the bus.
Bernard Kavanagh ( 062-51563; www.bkavcoaches.com) runs one evening service Monday to Saturday to Tipperary (€7, 50 minutes) and a service to Thurles and Clonmel (€7, 30 minutes).
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AROUND CASHEL
The atmospheric – and, at dusk, delightfully creepy – ruins of Athassel Priory sit in the shallow and verdant River Suir Valley, 7km southwest of Cashel. The original buildings date from 1205, and Athassel became one of the richest and most important monasteries in Ireland. What survives is substantial: the gatehouse and portcullis gateway, the cloister and stretches of walled enclosure, as well as some medieval tomb effigies.
To get there take the N74 to the village of Golden, then head south, along the narrow road signed Athassel Abbey, for 2km. Roadside parking is limited and very tight. The Priory is reached across often-muddy fields. The welter of lanes back here is good for cycling.
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CAHIR
pop 2850
Cahir (An Cathair; pronounced care) is a compact and attractive town that encircles its namesake castle, which doesn’t rise to the heights of the Rock of Cashel but does do a good job of looking like every castle you ever tried building at the beach. Towers, a moat and various battlements hit every fortified cliché you can think of – except it is missing a long-haired blonde in the highest window.
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DETOUR: FAMINE WARHOUSE
A relic of one of Ireland’s darkest chapters, the Famine Warhouse ( 087-908 9972; www.heritageireland.ie; admission free; 2.30-5.30pm Wed-Sun Apr-Sep, 2-4pm Sat & Sun Oct-Mar)