Co. Cork has to be one of the most beautiful locations of a beautiful country, and the small market town of Newmarket is one of its important market towns.

Newmarket town – or, in the classical Irish tongue, Áth Trasna – the passage at the ford, is in the Barony of Duhallow, in the north-west of Co. Cork. Bounded by Limerick and Kerry, and with the well-known Blackwater river running close by, filled with its delicious salmon, this is a portion of Ireland that you would be wacky to not visit.

The town of Newmarket itself, with just around 2,500 inhabitants, befits the description ’sleepy’ almost as well as anywhere in the country – unless you appear to be passing through after an extremely important G.A.A. Victory, when the town’s own anthem, Up Up Newmarket, will be heard – they take their sport absolutely seriously here.

Positioned on a valley surrounded by the foothills of the Mulmuaghreirk Mountains, where Fionn (the legendary Finn McCool) pursued the wild boar and the stag, Newmarket also has a number of alluring pre-historic locations near it – a cairn, gallauns (boundary stones) and forts. It is, indeed, a location soaked in Irish history; John Philpot Curran was born here and his daughter, Sarah, was the ladylove of rebel chieftain Robert Emmet. Just outside the town is the spectacular Island Wood, that houses the Twelve Apostles Tree – it has 12 smaller trunks extending from out of its main trunk. This unfrequented wooded area, with the River Dalua, full of salmon and trout, running splendidly through it, is a justly popular place for silent contemplation.

The Island Wood in Newmarket town, Co. Cork, Ireland, in fact, has been assimilated into a 100-mile trek known as the Duhallow Trail, investigating this wonderfully tranquil portion of the globe, and passing though Newmarket itself. Other especially important features of the trail are the attractive town of Kanturk and its popular castle, owned by An Taisce – The National Trust for Ireland and a wonderful structure. At the proximate graveyard of Clonfert, there is a poignant, small Celtic cross denoting the massed burial site of scores of victims of the Great Famine.

In Newmarket itself you will notice the lively James O’Keefe Institute – originally a housedwelling place built in 1725 for the Aldworth family, a member of which had formed the town a century earlier. this is now a prosperous centre for the local community.

There are no hotels in Newmarket, County Cork,, Ireland but still there are several wonderful guesthouses or places doing Bed and Breakfast in the area. K.D.’s Fast Food, has a good name for the quality of its menu and its amiable ambience and there are other areas where you can get delicious food, such as Marie’s Restaurant, on the Main Street. It is undoubtedly a town where you can be sure of a true, warm Cork welcome.

Co. Cork has a whole array of splendid attractions for visitors. The historic city of Cork itself is justifiably world acclaimed. The superb blue flag beaches of Ballybunnion are nearby. Blarney Castle and Killarney are just a brief drive. And there are wonderfully scenic golf courses, lakes, hill-sides and lakes.

found on the R576, at its joining with the R578, Newmarket, one of County Cork’s hidden treasures, should be part of everyone’s program when they’re in Ireland’s southwestern corner.