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

Newmarket - or, in the traditional Irish tongue, Áth Trasna - the passage at the ford, is in the Barony of Duhallow, in the north-west of Co. Cork. Bordered by Limerick and Kerry, and with the well-known Blackwater river flowing close by, filled with its tasty salmon, it is a portion of Ireland that you would be foolish to ignore.

The hamlet of Newmarket itself, with hardly 2,500 occupants, stands proof for the word ’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 extremely seriously here.

Situated on a gorge surrounded by the foothills of the Mulmuaghreirk Mountains, where Fionn (the legendary Finn McCool) chased the wild boar and the stag, Newmarket also has a number of amusing pre-historic places surrounding it - a cairn, gallauns (boundary stones) and forts. It is, indeed, a place soaked in Irish history; John Philpot Curran was born here and his daughter, Sarah, was the sweetheart of rebel leader Robert Emmet. Just outside the town is the beautiful Island Wood, that contains the Twelve Apostles Tree - it has twelve smaller trunks extending from out of its main trunk. This secluded wooded area, with the River Dalua, overflowing with salmon and trout, flowing beautifully through it, is a justly popular place for quiet contemplation.

The Island Wood in Newmarket, Co. Cork, in fact, has been blended into a 100-mile trek known as the Duhallow Trail, delving into this wonderfully serene portion of the globe, and passing though Newmarket itself. Other especially remarkable sectors of the trail are the mesmerizing town of Kanturk and its famous castle, managed by An Taisce - The National Trust for Ireland and a wonderful monument. At the nearby graveyard of Clonfert, there is a sentimental, small Celtic cross denoting the massed burial site of scores of victims of the Great Famine.

In Newmarket itself you will get to see the lively James O’Keefe Institute - really a housedwelling place built in 1725 for the Aldworth family, a member of which had set up the town a century earlier. this is now a prosperous centre for the local community.

There are no hotels in Newmarket, Co. Cork, though there are many fine guesthouses or places doing B&B in the area. K.D.’s Fast Food, has a good name for the quality of its menu and its friendly atmosphere and there are other locations where you can find delicious food, such as Marie’s Restaurant, on the Main Street. It is undoubtedly a town where you can be assured of a true, warm Irish welcome.

County Cork has a whole array of spectacular attractions for visitors. The wonderful city of Cork itself is of course world famous. The superb blue flag beaches of Ballybunnion are nearby. Blarney Castle and Killarney are just a few minutes drive. And there are superbly scenic golf links courses, lakes, hill-sides and lakes.

Situated on the R576, at its intersection with the R578, Newmarket, one of Co. Cork’s hidden treasures, should be part of everyone’s schedule when they’re in Ireland’s south west corner.