Some of the things we often recommend, put together by Caroline…NB this is by no means a definitive list and we’ll continue to update as we remember lovely places, and have time to write about them!

A stone’s throw from the smoke house

Fota House and Gardens, arrange a picnic from the smoke house and enjoy it on the lovely lawn behind the main house, in the rose garden. Don’t miss the glorious Arboretum, or the Victorian kitchen gardens (with its restored greenhouses), the traditional kitchens, and the elaborate Regency dining room. If you have time to plan, call us, and we can perhaps organise a guided tour to coincide with a lunch tour at the smoke house.

If you love built heritage, then look out for Martello Towers, the beautiful arched stone bridge between Great Island and Fota Island, Belvelly Castle, and the estate walls which follow the sharp bends and softer curves of Fota Island.

Not far

Hester Forde and Mary Byrne are renowned far and wide by gardeners in-the-know for their beautiful private gardens on the sunny hillside of Glounthaune. If you’d like a private group tour before or after lunch, let us know, and we’ll put you in touch with them.
We are also a few minutes drive from Killahora Orchards and Ardsallagh Cheese. These producers don’t yet have tours, but do let us know if you are interested in tasting their delicious products.

Cobh - 10 minutes drive

If you need to work up an appetite or walk off lunch Cobh offers dramatic harbour-front views and history that you can enjoy on self-guided tours along the higgledy piggledy streets and harbour walks. Cobh Cathedral is a must-see, the Sirius Arts Centre has some good gigs and Sea Salt Cafe offers homemade sandwiches and cakes.

We’ve found lovely vintage platters in Belvelly Vintage where you can also enjoy coffee and cakes, and Downstairs is another independently-owned shop for handmade gifts and cards. If you need to slake your thirst, then The Roaring Donkey is a good bet. This is where Frank entertained Rick Stein after his visit to the smoke house.

The Five-Foot Way starting at the American Pier and ending at the Heritage Centre (right next door to the train station) gives you close-up views of the cruise ships and people out fishing for mackerel in season.In the summer, kids plunge into the water from the railway bridge, which can be fun to watch, and all year round bathers go in at Cuskinny and the American pier, bathing spots which now attract mobile saunas that you can book at weekends.

We can thoroughly recommend the beautifully designed accommodation at West Beach House, Cobh, one of the very handsome four story terraced houses along the sea front. Mary is a friend of ours, great fun and knows exactly how to make a warm and welcoming room. We have another friend with a stunning private let in Cobh’s gorgeous Crescent – if you’re interested, please get in touch.

The Victorian promenade with its pretty bandstand takes you to the town centre and harbour, where fish was traditionally landed and where Frank found the inspiration for his trade. From here you can catch the ferry to Spike Island or enjoy Harbour Cruises with local company Ocean Escapes

The back of the island, where you can enjoy scenes of the estuary and very little traffic, while bird watching, also a lovely destination.

Midleton - 10 minutes drive

Midleton is our farmer's market town, where we trade every Saturday , and where the scent of the Midleton Distillery fills the air from time to time. Lots of people who come to have lunch tours here, follow it with a tasting in the distillery, or vice versa. The town has a great bakery, the Grumpy Bakers , Jill Bell’s renowned Well & Good food shop, Cush restaurant and lots of other independent shops and services typical of rural Irish market towns.

The town council are generous sponsors public art – don’t miss Joe Neeson’s tactile Sheep at the Post sculpture when you at the modern day market, and the dramatic Kindred Spirits sculpture by Alex Pentek. Locally this is known as “The Feather’s” and it commemorates the generosity of the Native American Choctaw people to Irish famine relief during the Great Famine.

Further East
Ballycotton, Ballymaloe, and Garryvoe - 30 minutes drive

The late great Dr Myrtle Allen of Ballymaloe House was very much at the forefront of the 80s food revolution, and hugely encouraging to Frank, and other indigenous food producers such as Jane Murphy at Ardsallagh Cheese. Our food can be found on the delicious menus at this beautiful Georgian pile on the way to Ballycotton pier, the cliff top walk (and lighthouse) and the wild beaches of the East Coast (Ballycroneen, Ballybranagan and Inch)

Ballymaloe has an irresistible gift shop and café which is great for lunch and coffee and cake, needless to say. You really shouldn’t come to Cork without experiencing the hotel in some form or other.
Ballymaloe Grainstore offers musical entertainment and every festival under the sun (or rain!), and Ballymaloe Cookery School - with its lovely kitchen gardens, colossal green house,  and afternoon cookery demonstrations  - is a magnet for foodies and gardeners learning to cook and grow.

You can also stay at Garryvoe or Bayview Hotel, family resorts on the beach or cliff top, and enjoy chowder, brown bread and fish-and-chip-style menus. Street food is offered from the Field Kitchen at the popular Blackbird pub to be enjoyed with a pint - obviously! The Big Blue pizza joint has outdoor tables in its garden, and you can sit down in the comfort of local restaurants in the music venue Seachurch, or harbourside Salty Dog.

Castlemartyr, Lismore and Ardmore - 15/ 30 minutes drive

Castlemartyr is a lovely village with a smart hotel Castlemartyr Resort comprising peaceful lake, woodland, and dreamy views of horses grazing around mature trees. They’re very supportive of local attractions and are one in themselves with Michelin star restaurant Terre. The village has a popular pub, the Hunted Hog and a great garden café at Carewswood Garden centre, in the grounds of a traditional walled garden.

We are also huge fans of Lismore, Ardmore and the Copper Coast, The Blackwater Valley and the mountains - in County Waterford. Lismore Castle and the stately homes of the valley host a thoroughly enjoyable & accessible Opera Season but we go there all year round to be amazed and inspired by the gardens and arboretum stuffed with rare species and beautiful sculptures. Ballyvolane House is a lovely place to stay (or celebrate your wedding!) nearby.

The town has good eateries, the castle has excellent homemade cakes. There’s a market on Sundays and the Garden Kitchen Café down the road and in Ardmore where there are more cliff walks, a sandy beach, pier diving, Ardmore pottery and gift shop, and the lovely sea-facing cliff top hotel bar and terrace, The Cliff House Hotel, where the sea always seems to be turquoise.

Cork City - 20/ 30 minutes drive 

In Cork City itself, our favourite destinations are The English Market a brilliant meeting place right in the centre. On high days and holidays it’s humming with regulars, not to mention the greatest variety of food stalls. Cornmarket also has a lovely farmers market on a Saturday, and the young with prams head to the food-to-go of the Marina.

We love the cloistered quadrangle of University College Cork, and gorgeous riverside lawns and walks of Fitzgeralds Park. You can enjoy fantastic views of the city from the ramparts of Elizabeth Fort. Here on Barrack Street you’ll find the warm and welcoming fug of Alchemy coffee shop, which is definitely the "coolest" coffee bar in town.

Mind you, there is lots of competition … Enjoy eggs “benny” – including our smoked mackerel -  in squeaky green GDD in the leafy grounds of the Nano Nagle Centre or try Probys, another excellent brunch, lunch and dinner café fortuitously located beside St Finbars. Latitude 51 is further downstream and a great community-focussed wine bar with excellent, often natural, wines, good food and screenings of food movies – what more could you want?

Another nice area to explore is St Lukes Cross, with Henchys Bar the main draw at night, and Cork Coffee Roasters by day. There’s a modest pizzeria next door that supplies the bar, and new kid on the block, Goodhood, which Dan, our smoker, says was excellent for breakfast on a Sunday.

However, we have to give you our favourite places to eat, apart from St Francis Provisions! Top of the list comes No.51 Of all the restaurants we’ve taken our staff to (and there have been many!) this is the one which really pulls out the stops. It’s consistently fun and friendly and delicious whether you’re in groups of two or 22. (This could be the max, it’s a tiny intimate restaurant.)

We have also loved precise and delicious cooking at the Glass Curtain (followed or indeed preceded by MacCurtain Wine Cellar) and we really recommend the tasting menu at the renowned and refined (rather than wholegrain) vegetarian Cafe Paradiso It’s one of the few places where the wine-matching menu makes sense and there’s none of the interminable lecturing you get elsewhere!

To the West - 45 minutes drive 

Jump on the cross river ferry 5 minutes from the smoke house and shorten the drive to Kinsale.  This is an attractive day-trip destination, with a food market on Wednesday in the summer months, lots of bijou shops and a harbour full of yachts all year round. Crucially, it has St Francis Provisions, one of the other restaurants that any self-respecting food-lover should not miss on a visit to the county.

One of Cork's most renowned cooks, Clare Nash, ex Nash 19, now opens her lovely house to groups when she’s not on a round of golf at the Old Head. Here she cooks on the Aga, while sharing all her food and local food knowledge.

Local walking should take in the surrounding headlands, spectacular on a good day. People also rave about the Bullman pub, you’ll get a decent breakfast at the Lemon Leaf, and we’ve enjoyed many a fish supper at local chipper Dinos.

A little bit further to drive, but very worth it, is our daughter, Beatrice’s favourite cake destination in Ballinaspittle. With a name like Diva Boutique, you’re already 50% of the way there! This tiny hamlet now has a host of small shops and places to eat, so swing by. 

The coast road to Timoleague and on to colourful Clonakilty is gorgeous even in wet weather, and there’s another destination fish and chip shop on Long Strand Beach, called The Fish Basket (Careful not to swim here as it’s notoriously dangerous – but wave- and people-watching is fun!).

West Cork - 2/ 2.5 hours drive

No, we’re not in west Cork, as so many assume. We’re in East Cork where the food renaissance of the 80s started with Dr Myrtle Allen. However, the west is of course a beautiful place to visit. We supply Bantry House, a two-hour drive on a relatively straight road from Cork, and if you do strike out in this direction, don’t miss the spell-binding beauty of Garnish Island and the windswept wilds of Sheep’s Head and the Beara peninsula…

Go North - 5/ 6 hours drive (Cork to Belfast) 

Caroline’s home is County Down so she often beats a path via Dublin to the north. Cashel, the Horse and Jockey (with its amazing cakes and excellent gift shop) and Strandfield (arguably the best large café on the island of Ireland in Dundalk) are favoured stop-off points on the N25 & M8.

Her favourite spots to visit apart from native Strangford Lough (with National Trust properties and glorious gardens at Mountstewart, Castleward) are the Mournes, Tyrella Beach and Seaforde, where you’ll also find beautiful gardens, an amazing tropical butterfly house, and great café. She also used to trudge around the Glens of Antrim. Don’t miss bakery Ursa Minor and reputedly excellent seafood restaurant Lir on your way there.

In Belfast, where she was the local food critic for years, she keeps tabs on where’s good to eat. Recent favourites have been Beau downtown, and La Bottega, and Shu on the Lisburn Road.

Beatrice’s top tip is the Bo Tree restaurant near Botanic Gardens, Queen’s University, The Ulster Museum and the Seamus Heaney library, all worth a visit.  Near Bangor, Caroline’s nephew Sol used to work at Counter Culture, and Sean the owner made it all the way down here, so he definitely deserves a mention!

NB this is by no means a definitive list and we’ll continue to update as we remember lovely places, and have time to write about them!

Don't forget to visit us!