Courtown - a town of two parts.

I took my children to Courtown Harbour a few weeks ago, primarily to visit the Irish Seal Sanctuary but also to do a few of the normal seaside things - chips, amusement arcades etc. Train to Gorey and taxi the rest of the way by Cousins Mini Bus Hire (086) 246 6264. I can highly recommend them for friendliness/price and reliability. Of course there was no information panel at the station with taxi numbers but the helpful ticket clerk supplied me with Cousins' number.

I hadn't been to Courtown for years but what a shock awaited us. The old part of the town appeared derelict with boarded-up hotels and other closed business premises. We walked on to the Forest Park Leisure Centre and nearby Irish Seal Sanctuary http://www.irishsealsanctuary.ie/ which although not yet open to the public gave us a free guided tour which ended in a well stocked souvenir shop!

The Leisure Centre boasts all sorts of excellent facilities and is a model of how things should be done, more information here: http://www.coralleisure.ie/our-clubs/court.html.html and, for the more daring, adjacent to the Centre is Gravity Extreme Adventure and it is not for children or the faint hearted but looks amazing fun and state of the art!

More here: http://www.gravityforestpark.ie/index.php

Back to the old part of the town, past a sad looking crazy golf course which looked like it had peaked in the late 1960s and off to find chips. The first two premises that we tried appeared disinterested in customers and so we headed back towards the harbour where we came across the Dinky Takeaway next to Flanagan's Wharf Amusements. I like to consider myself something of a connoisseur when it comes to chips - I've eaten enough of them - and I was bowled over by what the Dinky served us. Even my eight year old who is not a big fan of chips devoured his portion. I googled the Dinky when I got home and was amused to see that my taste buds had not lied and that they had been voted as serving Ireland's best chips on Marty Whelan's 2FM radio show!

After the chips it was time to bite the bullet and introduce the kids to the delights of Flanagan's Amusements .......more later have to go out urgently.

Oct.20th - Back at last! Well, what can you say about Flanagan's - the kids loved the various bike, car and truck simulators while I was reminded of why it's best to stay out of such places as the gambling machines devoured my loose change. At last look around the harbour before the taxi arrived to bring us back to Gorey station. I'll be back again but next time to do a spot of birdwatching in Courtown Woods.