Fionnuala Harkin - West Cork People

Burgundy wine country on two wheels

Fionnuala Harkin March, 2026

A beautiful wine moment, around a bottle of red Burgundy, inspired a birthday cycling trip with my sister. The route, from The Lonely Planet Guide to Cycling in France, was chosen based on easy terrain, the odd hill just to give us a bit of a challenge, and, crucially, wonderful scenery, pristine, […]

Travel TALES

Fionnuala Harkin January, 2026

It’s no surprise that January is the busiest month for booking holidays. One look out the window at that wet, grey day has me dreaming of sunny blue skies, coffee on warm terraces, and glasses of wine after a swim in water, which doesn’t temporarily stop my heart. After recommendations […]

Gift a skill this Christmas

Fionnuala Harkin December, 2025

When our children started to move out of home and begin their independent lives, we decided that the best Christmas present for all of us was an opportunity to spend time together. Better again if we got to learn something while we were at it, and of course picking a […]

Adventures of a workawayer

Fionnuala Harkin November, 2025

My favourite part of the day was the chicken watch, mid-afternoon and usually sunny and warm. I was volunteering on a farm in Italy as a ‘workaway’, and one of my jobs was letting the chickens out for their daily run and getting them back safely into the coop. The […]

A Clonakilty staycation

Fionnuala Harkin October, 2025

A ‘staycation’, according to the dictionary, is a holiday spent ‘in, or in the neighbourhood of, one’s own home’. So, I’m not sure this qualifies as a travel piece, but it is definitely a holiday story, just without the travel bit. Every August for the last few years, my mother […]

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