Must-see attractions in County Cork

  • Cork city jail.

    Cork City Gaol

    Cork City

    This imposing former prison is well worth a visit, if only to get a sense of how awful life was for prisoners a century ago. An audio tour (€2 extra)…

  • Charles Fort, Kinsale, Ireland

    Charles Fort

    Kinsale

    One of Europe's best-preserved star-shaped artillery forts, this vast 17th-century fortification would be worth a visit for its spectacular views alone…

  • English Market.

    English Market

    Cork City

    The English Market – so called because it was set up in 1788 by the Protestant or ‘English’ corporation that then controlled the city (there was once an…

  • Bantry House & Garden

    County Cork

    With its melancholic air of faded gentility, 18th-century Bantry House makes for an intriguing visit. From the Gobelin tapestries in the drawing room to…

  • Ilnacullin

    Beara Peninsula

    This horticultural miracle of an island was created in the early 20th century when the island's owner commissioned architect Harold Peto to design a…

  • Crawford Art Gallery

    Cork City

    Cork's public gallery houses a small but excellent permanent collection covering the 17th century through to the modern day, though the works on display…

  • blarney county cork ireland

    Blarney Castle

    County Cork

    If you need proof of the power of a good yarn, then join the queue to get into this 15th-century castle, one of Ireland's most popular tourist attractions…

  • Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Co Cork, Ireland

    St Fin Barre's Cathedral

    Cork City

    Spiky spires, gurning gargoyles and elaborate sculpture adorn the exterior of Cork's Protestant cathedral, an attention-grabbing mixture of French Gothic…

  • giraffes strolling in the grass on fota wildlife park in county cork ireland

    Fota Wildlife Park

    County Cork

    Kangaroos bound, cheetahs run, and monkeys and gibbons leap and scream on wooded islands at this huge outdoor zoo, where the animals roam without a cage…

  • Dunboy Castle

    Beara Peninsula

    The ruins of this 15th-century castle, a former stronghold of the O'Sullivan Beare clan, sit on a promontory overlooking the southern entrance to the…

  • Mizen Head Signal Station

    County Cork

    Completed in 1909 to help warn ships off the rocks, Mizen Head signal station is perched high above crashing waves and contorted sea cliffs on a small…

  • Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve

    Beara Peninsula

    The valley of the Glengarriff River, to the northwest of Glengarriff village, was once the private estate of the Earl of Bantry. As such its ancient oak…

  • Bere Island

    Beara Peninsula

    Only 12km by 7km, Bere Island has around 200 permanent residents and attracts scores more to summer holiday homes. There are ruined Martello towers,…

  • Cork Butter Museum

    Cork City

    Cork has a long tradition of butter manufacturing – in the 1860s it was the world's largest butter market, exporting butter throughout the British Empire …

  • Ewe Experience

    Beara Peninsula

    More than 20 years in the making, this interactive sculpture garden is imaginative, thought-provoking and humorous, with nature and art working together…

  • Desmond Castle

    Kinsale

    Kinsale's roots in the wine trade are on display at this early-16th-century fortified house that was occupied by the Spanish in 1601. Since then it has…

  • Old Head Signal Tower & Lusitania Museum

    Kinsale

    This 200-year-old signal tower houses a museum dedicated to the RMS Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915 with the loss of 1200 lives…

  • University College Cork

    Cork City

    Established in 1845 as one of three 'queen's colleges' (the others are in Galway and Belfast) set up to provide nondenominational alternatives to the…

  • Fota House Arboretum & Gardens

    County Cork

    Guided tours of Regency-style Fota House focus on the original kitchen and ornate plasterwork ceilings, but the real highlight here is the 150-year-old…

  • Milleens Cheese

    Beara Peninsula

    The town of Eyeries is home to Milleens cheese, first created by the late pioneering producer Veronica Steele. Visitors are welcome to visit the Steele…

  • Elizabeth Fort

    Cork City

    Originally built in the 1620s, and serving as a garda (police) station from 1929 to 2013, this small star-shaped artillery fort once formed an important…

  • Blackrock Castle

    Cork City

    Blackrock Castle is a restored 16th-century castle that now, rather incongruously, hosts a small hands-on science centre, an inflatable planetarium and a…

  • Barleycove Beach

    County Cork

    Vast sand dunes hemmed in by two long bluffs dissolve into the surf, forming West Cork's finest beach. Rarely crowded, it's a great place for youngsters,…

  • Clock Gate Tower

    County Cork

    The curious Clock Gate straddles the middle of Youghal's main street. Built in 1777, it served as a town gate, clock tower and jail; several prisoners…

  • Jameson Experience

    County Cork

    Coachloads pour in to tour this restored 200-year-old distillery building. Exhibits and 75-minute tours (run between 10am and 4pm) explain the process of…

  • St Anne's Church

    Cork City

    Shandon is dominated by the 1722 St Anne’s Church, aka the ‘Four-Faced Liar’ – so called because each of the tower’s four clocks used to tell a slightly…

  • Cork Public Museum

    Cork City

    Located in a Georgian mansion with a modern extension, this museum recounts Cork’s history. The diverse collection of local artefacts tells the story from…

  • Lewis Glucksman Gallery

    Cork City

    This award-winning building is a startling construction of limestone, steel and timber, built in 2004 by Dublin architects O'Donnell and Tuomey. Three…

  • Gleninchaquin Park

    Beara Peninsula

    This working sheep farm offers a whole range of things to do, from waymarked history and geology walks to trout fishing and feeding the lambs (in spring),…

  • Derreen Gardens

    Beara Peninsula

    Derreen Gardens were planted by the fifth Lord Lansdowne around the turn of the 20th century. Mossy paths weave through an abundance of interesting plants…

  • Allihies Copper Mine Museum

    Beara Peninsula

    Allihies' history as a copper mining area is chronicled in this engaging museum, the result of years of work by the community; there's also tourist…

  • Glanmore Lake

    Beara Peninsula

    About 1km west of Lauragh, a side road leads to forest-fringed Glanmore Lake, with the remains of an old hermitage on a tiny island in the middle. Get…

  • Kilravock Garden

    County Cork

    Travel a world of plants at Kilravock Garden, which has been transformed over two decades from a field of scrag and stone to a feast of exotic plants by…

  • Stone Corridor

    Cork City

    This covered walkway on the north side of University College Cork's Victorian Gothic main quad houses Ireland's biggest collection of Ogham stones, carved…

  • Donkey Sanctuary

    County Cork

    This nonprofit institution is dedicated to rescuing abandoned and abused donkeys. Here they are provided with food and veterinary care and virtually no…

  • Holy Trinity Church

    Cork City

    The Holy Trinity Church was designed by the Pain brothers in 1834 in the honour of Father Theobald Mathew, whose statue sits just south of the River Lee…

  • St Multose Church

    Kinsale

    This is one of the country's oldest Church of Ireland churches, built around 1190 by the Normans on the site of a 6th-century church. Not much of the…

  • Old Butter Market

    Cork City

    Cork had the largest butter market in the world during the 1860s, exporting butter as far as India, South America and Australia. The Butter Exchange was…

  • Radio Museum

    Cork City

    The National Radio Museum is part of the Cork City Gaol which, after its closure in 1923, housed a radio station from 1927 until the 1950s. The change of…

  • Planetarium

    County Cork

    Founded by a German visitor who fell in love with Schull, the Republic's only planetarium is tucked around the back of Schull Community College at the…