Here are the available cottages for rental in County Cork.

Grin and Beara it

We were sitting in the glory that is MacCarthy's bar in Castletownbere. 'You're going to change my life,' I announced to Deirdre Purcell.
It was early September in 1997, a week into filming her novel Falling For A Dancer, set on the wild and magnificent Beara Peninsula in Ireland's far South West. I had fallen in love.
It seemed to happen so quickly. I realised that this was going to be no casual romance. I had a need in me that had to be satisfied.
I was born in Cork but raised in London, where my work as an actor keeps me. London's fine, but I didn't want to just go back when the filming was over and never see this place again.
I think it was a combination of things that got me to such a love-sick state. Fortunately, my wife Suzanne was very understanding.
Deirdre's story, set in the Forties, tells the romantic tale of a city girl who, after a traumatic love life, ends up in a remote part of the Beara Peninsula.
Our producer, Peter Norris, had found some wonderful locations, the most spectacular being Claonach, a hidden valley in the mountains.
It's accessible only by four-wheel drive after a heart-stopping journey along the edge of a cliff overlooking Coulagh Bay.
We filmed for almost three months, getting to know the local people, most of whom were in the film or connected with it in some way, and experiencing the grandeur of the West Cork weather in all its unpredictable glory.
Long, lazy days with unimaginably blue skies stretching way out beyond the coastline, so clear you could see almost all the way to Boston! ... more

Grin and Beara it

We were sitting in the glory that is MacCarthy's bar in Castletownbere. 'You're going to change my life,' I announced to Deirdre Purcell.
It was early September in 1997, a week into filming her novel Falling For A Dancer, set on the wild and magnificent Beara Peninsula in Ireland's far South West. I had fallen in love.
It seemed to happen so quickly. I realised that this was going to be no casual romance. I had a need in me that had to be satisfied.
I was born in Cork but raised in London, where my work as an actor keeps me. London's fine, but I didn't want to just go back when the filming was over and never see this place again.
I think it was a combination of things that got me to such a love-sick state. Fortunately, my wife Suzanne was very understanding.
Deirdre's story, set in the Forties, tells the romantic tale of a city girl who, after a traumatic love life, ends up in a remote part of the Beara Peninsula.
Our producer, Peter Norris, had found some wonderful locations, the most spectacular being Claonach, a hidden valley in the mountains.
It's accessible only by four-wheel drive after a heart-stopping journey along the edge of a cliff overlooking Coulagh Bay.
We filmed for almost three months, getting to know the local people, most of whom were in the film or connected with it in some way, and experiencing the grandeur of the West Cork weather in all its unpredictable glory.
Long, lazy days with unimaginably blue skies stretching way out beyond the coastline, so clear you could see almost all the way to Boston! ... more

Rather taken by the waters

From the Mail on Sunday

The southern Irish coast is never less than wonderful - but the views from Inchydoney are downright spectacular.
If you were told to design the dream location for a spa, you couldn't come up with anything more perfect.
The spa at Inchydoney Island sits on a spit of land above a white horseshoe bay on west Cork's most dramatic stretch of coast.
Here a canny French doctor and an English hotelier have established the only thalassotherapy (seawater) spa outside mainland Europe.
When it opened three years ago, only a handful of clients were men. Now 40 per cent of visitors are spa virgins taking the plunge.
'It's best to start them off with a massage,' Patricia the manager tells me. 'Then they'll be putty in your hands.'
I book without delay, hoping to lure stressed boyfriend Nicholas away with promises of Beamish and bars and live music - with a bit of warm seawater thrown in.
In the spa, Atlantic seawater is pumped in from Inchydoney's Blue Flag beach, heated to blood temperature and used in a variety of jets and pools to relax, rejuvenate and revive tired or injured bodies.
The boyfriend is persuaded...
THE CONSULTATION
Her: Parisian Dr Jost (chinos, burgundy shirt) meets me (white dressing gown) by the fire in the clubby library and bar. 'I'm 53,' he announces. 'I don't look it, do I?' (He doesn't.)
He explains how seawater puts nutrients into the body and then the algae takes toxins out. Apparently enlightened French employees lay on biannual treatments for staff.
I brief Dr Jost to talk to the workaholic, Coca-Cola-guzzling boyfriend about stress, sleep and diet.
Him: Dr Jost tells me he treated the French Rugby team in the Eighties; the Irish team comes here regularly.
I imagine the great, bald pate of Ireland's veteran captain Keith Wood taking on the water jets.
The spa cost something around £14 million to build and is one of 100 thalassotherapy centres worldwide.
One on Biarritz is owned by Serge Blanco, the legendary French rugby full back. Dr Jost advised him on design. ... more

Rather taken by the waters

From the Mail on Sunday

The southern Irish coast is never less than wonderful - but the views from Inchydoney are downright spectacular.
If you were told to design the dream location for a spa, you couldn't come up with anything more perfect.
The spa at Inchydoney Island sits on a spit of land above a white horseshoe bay on west Cork's most dramatic stretch of coast.
Here a canny French doctor and an English hotelier have established the only thalassotherapy (seawater) spa outside mainland Europe.
When it opened three years ago, only a handful of clients were men. Now 40 per cent of visitors are spa virgins taking the plunge.
'It's best to start them off with a massage,' Patricia the manager tells me. 'Then they'll be putty in your hands.'
I book without delay, hoping to lure stressed boyfriend Nicholas away with promises of Beamish and bars and live music - with a bit of warm seawater thrown in.
In the spa, Atlantic seawater is pumped in from Inchydoney's Blue Flag beach, heated to blood temperature and used in a variety of jets and pools to relax, rejuvenate and revive tired or injured bodies.
The boyfriend is persuaded...
THE CONSULTATION
Her: Parisian Dr Jost (chinos, burgundy shirt) meets me (white dressing gown) by the fire in the clubby library and bar. 'I'm 53,' he announces. 'I don't look it, do I?' (He doesn't.)
He explains how seawater puts nutrients into the body and then the algae takes toxins out. Apparently enlightened French employees lay on biannual treatments for staff.
I brief Dr Jost to talk to the workaholic, Coca-Cola-guzzling boyfriend about stress, sleep and diet.
Him: Dr Jost tells me he treated the French Rugby team in the Eighties; the Irish team comes here regularly.
I imagine the great, bald pate of Ireland's veteran captain Keith Wood taking on the water jets.
The spa cost something around £14 million to build and is one of 100 thalassotherapy centres worldwide.
One on Biarritz is owned by Serge Blanco, the legendary French rugby full back. Dr Jost advised him on design. ... more

Dog days in Cork

What a grand night I had when I went to the dogs. Cork City's new Curraheen Park Greyhound Stadium is a state-of-the-art centre for fun and a flutter.
From comfortable seats overlooking the track, punters psyched up by the action and excitement, tuck into chips and cheesecake, down a pint or three, place their bets (as little as one euro a race) and cheer wildly each time the traps open and the dogs streak after the electric hare.
Admittedly, one greyhound looks very much like another to a novice such as myself but, blow me down, my first and second dogs, Tycoon Spark and Hidden Fancy, won.
Total strangers flung their arms round me, children punched the air and urged me on. Third time lucky. Ha! The traps opened, my dog sat down and I lost my winnings. The story of my life.
But I stayed on, you bet, for the live music and it was easy to see how a person might become hooked.
Live music is one of the delights of Cork. The city, buzzing with a sense of regeneration and a new European identity, has brilliant buskers and great pubs made irresistible by traditional tin whistles, fiddles and bodhrans.
People were packing into Greene's restaurant (fab food, incidentally) for the Three Celtic Tenors live, just back from their sell-out American tour, and all tickets were sold for Nigel Kennedy playing Bach with the Irish orchestra.
Strolling through town you see fashion stores and trendy boutiques rubbing shoulders with music and antique shops. The English Market, a vast Victorian food emporium where everything is organic, fresh and home-produced, is to drool over.
Here are home-cured hams, home-baked pies and cakes, and an imaginative variety of bread including a miraculous raspberry and chocolate loaf which, spread with locally churned butter, is a treat of gourmet proportions.
Upstairs, on the balcony, the Farmgate Cafe offers great home-cooked Irish stew, or tripe and onions, and the opportunity to people watch. ... more