I was so moved by the atmosphere of the castle-like fortress, the turretted walls, the tunnel to the sea and the crumbling barracks walls, that I wrote a novel called, can you imagine, Charles Fort. A pen pal of mine, Anais Nin, convinced me to change the name but it didn't matter since it was never published. Back in the... more

My Great Grandfather was Denis Varley who was born in Fairhill, Galway in 1845. In 1865 he enlisted into the 39th Regt of Foot and was sent almost immediately to Bermuda. In 1868 however he was stationed at Fort Charles in Kinsale and research at the Public Records Office revealed many details of his time there. Denis was just an... more

My parents sat, open-mouthed and in shock, this summer as, thirty years on, I told them of my memories of Charles Fort. We took several family summer holidays in Cork, often with a colleague of my father and his family. Their children were older, by several years, than my brother and I, and I don't think my parents had truly... more