Category: Riddle - Reading the Signs

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Cork – Down Under

26/4/2017

Bunratty Folk Park

This may look like many other postboxes – V.R. insignia, made by H & C Smith in Cork – but it has a very unusual feature – a feature that I have not seen on any other postbox, and I have photographed over 850 boxes – new, old, disused, red, green, or many different manufacturers.

There have been more than a few blogs hereabout on various matters relating to postboxes – alternatives use; additional insignia; Queen Elizabeth; old; older; and, oldest.

This postbox, as manufactured in Cork, is likely to have seen service in Ireland. It currently resides in the Bunratty Folk Park where we spent a very pleasant and pleasurable afternoon on Easter Saturday. I do recommend a visit.

There is a second box in the village section of Bunratty – another red box; Victoria Regina; but a Penfolds postbox, similar to Skibbereen.

Bunratty Folk Park

Sbibbereen, Co. Cork

Swan & Cygnet

9/7/2015

Earlier, I spotted on Photos of Cork, an old photograph of the Swan & Cygnet at the start of Patrick’s Street.

It reminded me of the old signage for the bar which still hangs in Cork – a bit distant from the original location.

A Riddle of Cannons

4/6/2015

After Gerry - 1

When I first was asked this question, I was asked to name the two cannons on public display in Cork.

It now needs to be reworded. There are at least four cannons in Cork – where are they.

How to Train a Dragon....... in Cork

9/3/2015

I spotted this pair of Dragons when out yesterday morning.

How well do you know Cork?

Do you know where they reside?

Solving A Riddle

8/12/2014

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity – Chapter 18

Business card at Cork Coffee Roasters

I always thought that one might find a leak.

If successful at that, one might fix a leak.

Solving was generally reserved for puzzles, riddles and crosswords.

I never thought of solving a leak.

As I am one not to be trusted with any tool, I would not be the best person to go to if you needed a leak found, fixed or even solved…….

Riddle for Bank Holiday Weekend - March 2014

14/3/2014

Question: There are 2 separate junctions in Cork city where 5 roads meet.

Do you know where?

Looking Up at Those Looking Down

25/2/2014

“Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.”

Simon & Garfunkel – The Boxer

Many years ago, I took photographs of the upper floors of buildings in Cork and asked people to identify the building.

Few achieved a pass mark.

Many would identify a shopfront or a shop window but above those levels, I think that many do not take in what is there.

These heads are all on one building in Cork city centre.

A few more Heads

6/2/2014

Since putting up the blog about Neptune, I have noted a few more prominent heads on buildings in Cork.

To keep you distracted for the day, where are they?

Riddle for Bank Holiday Weekend - Oct 2013

25/10/2013

‘As one would expect, horse troughs sit near where the main roads associated with the livestock trade enter the city from the North, East and South. A fourth can be found in ….. All are concrete but cast in two pieces and of Victorian Gothic design. It is possible that they are of nineteenth century date (concrete was used in the foundations of St. Patrick’s Bridge in 1860), but is more likely that they are of early 20th Century manufacture.’

Cork City : A Field Guide to its Street Furniture – Tom Spalding

I have spotted four such troughs on the approach roads into the city as well as one within the centre island of the
city.

Where are they?

Help

11/10/2013

Last month, a friend was carrying out some works to his garden and pointed out the above plaque which was uncovered in his back wall which adjoins the old Collins Barracks Tennis Club that is part of the Camp Field complex. It appears to read:

W ↑ D
No 5
←F W TO 4
C W TO 9→

The oracle that is Tom Spalding has suggested that WD would stand for War Department which is consistent with the wall being boundary of the
old Victoria Barracks .

Any suggestions for FW and CW would be very welcome.

Since then I have spotted three similar engraved limestone inserts on the wall by Christian Brothers College and one on Old Youghal Road onto the Camp Field.

Riddle for Bank Holiday Weekend - August 2013.

2/8/2013

“The earliest surviving pillar box still in daily use is the unusual little one…. Remarkable for having its letter aperture in the top rather than the side of the box, the result apparently of an oversight on the part of its designer, Richard Redgrave of the Department of Science and Art in London, it was manufactured by Cochrane & Co of Dudley and dates from 1857-1859”
The Irish Post Box – Silent servant and symbol of the State – Stephen Ferguson

Where is this post box?

ANSWER

Riddle for Bank Holiday Weekend - June 2013

31/5/2013

Can you name a street in Cork that goes up at both ends?

The street has a low point at the start, rising to a high point in the middle and then down again to a low point.

Answer

Riddle for Bank Holiday Weekend

3/5/2013

Can you construct a sentence that reads correctly, that is grammatically correct and has the same word five times consecutively in the sentence?

(‘I had had that before’ has the same word twice consecutively but you need to include five consecutively)

Riddle

11/4/2013

There are seven (or eight) colours mentioned in names of thoroughfares in Cork City. What are they?