The joys of Mallow

Is there anything better than finishing work on a Friday and catching up with friends, especially if you are working from home and it takes you about two minutes to walk to said café? I’m all about a Friday evening catch-up and will always say yes when invited and I find it much more favourable to having to go to town on a Saturday night to meet people. I will more than likely make my excuses and not go.

Sadly, I think this is due to the fact that I am essentially a lazy dresser and I can easily get away with wearing a midi dress and my converse to after work drinks as I’m already dressed but a Saturday night on the town requires a change of clothes and maximum hair and make up effort which I will do only in exceptional circumstances.

That being said, I was wild last week and went out both nights at the weekend. I mean who do I think I am? A feckless 25 year old with an iron liver? To be fair, it was well worth it, though, as my husband and I went on a staycation to Mallow.

Now can you believe that as a Cork native, I have never set foot in Mallow before? My only experience of the town is the jazzy roundabout, passing the Dairygold factory and changing trains to go to Dublin.

In my defence, if you’re from West Cork, it feels like you never really venture towards North Cork that much, as I always either go further west or to Kerry. Well let me tell you I have to say I rated Mallow very much!

Firstly we stayed in a really nice hotel, The Hibernian, which had the nicest staff ever and a seriously good menu. If you go there you have to order the prawns pil pil. We were going to share but we ended up getting one each and lucky we did because we would have been fighting over them.

We also just sat and had cocktails in the bar after dinner and it was lovely to sit in a bar and people watch. I also went all out with my outfit which, on reflection, was probably OTT for Mallow on a Saturday night but sure there’s no point saving outfits for best.

It was a vintage 1970s pink suit which I picked up for €30 from a vintage seller I follow on Instagram and paired it with strappy green shoes, a white beaded vintage bag that I’ve had for years that goes with everything and just kept my jewellery minimal.

I also love doing these little staycations because it means I get to visit different boutiques in person that I usually only get to see on Instagram. In my opinion, you can’t beat visiting a bricks and mortar shop and getting to try on the clothes there and experience the great customer service.

I’ve long been a fan of Moda which is a beautiful store that has décor goals and I picked up two t-shirts there.

One was from selected Femme which has a really nice quality to it and a white MSCH t-shirt which, I feel weird saying this, but it was probably the nicest tee I’ve ever put on.

It was just such a nice feel and fit.

I also went to another boutique called Profile and found three really lovely dresses on sale there that I know I will get great wear out of.

Now, which town shall I visit next?