Overview
Kilmacsimon is a small village and townland on the tidal reach of the River Bandon, about 7 km east of Bandon town and 4 km south of Innishannon in County Cork. Its focus is the quay – a slipway on the estuary where a coastal rowing club keeps its boats and runs a summer carnival. If you’re stopping, the one thing worth seeking out is the memorial at the quay to Pat Deasy, a sixteen-year-old fatally wounded in the Kilmichael ambush of 1920.
It’s a townland in the civil parish of Ballinadee, in the barony of East Carbery, and it first turns up in the records in 1615, in the Calendar of Patent Rolls of James I. For most of its history the point of the place was the river – a route for timber and goods – and the water still shapes what happens here.
Rowing and the water carnival
Coastal rowing is the village’s main sporting life, and it goes back further than you might guess: crews were racing out of Kilmacsimon by at least 1984, the year a new boat was bought and the senior men became SWCYRA champions. Mary Kiely and Deirdre Keohane took the two-oar ladies’ race the same season.
The club runs the Kilmacsimon Water Carnival towards the end of June each year – traditional rowing races, live music and food stalls by the water, about as local as a day out gets. The village also gained a purpose-built community and activity centre in May 2014, which hosts events and fitness classes through the year.
Keohane’s Bar and the old bridge
Keohane’s Bar looks out over the Bandon estuary from the middle of the village. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage records it as an attractive, unusually laid-out building that keeps its historic sash windows and slate roofs. It’s the village pub in the full sense – where people gather during regattas and on summer weekends.
Close by, an early road bridge crosses the water on stone lintels, its round-headed cutwaters – the pointed piers that split the current – finely cut. It’s a small piece of workmanship, worth a look if you’re passing on foot.
Myhaven Kilmacsimon retreat
Myhaven Kilmacsimon is a wellness retreat on a secluded riverside plot, set up for groups rather than passing individuals: corporate away-days, private parties and the like. The draw is contrast therapy – a wood-fired sauna, a heated outdoor hot tub and stainless-steel cold-water barrels – with sessions that often open with movement and sound therapy before the hot-and-cold routine. It runs on reservation only, so book directly rather than turning up.
Getting there and around
Kilmacsimon is reached on minor roads off the R600, which links to the N71 for Cork city and Bandon. There’s parking at the community centre and by the quay, though it fills for the Water Carnival and the bigger regattas. Public transport is thin – the nearest regular buses stop in Innishannon, about 4 km off – so you’ll want a car.
The estuary bank makes for flat, easy walking, and the slow stretches are good for herons, swans and the odd kingfisher; dogs are welcome but keep them on a lead near nesting birds. If you’d rather stay, there’s a homestay in the village, with a minimum stay of a week. For a pint and the best view of the water, it’s Keohane’s.