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County Cork
Everything good about Ireland can be found in County Cork. Surrounding the country's second city – a thriving metropolis made glorious by location and its almost Rabelaisian devotion to the finer things of life – is a lush landscape dotted with villages that offer days of languor and idyll. The city's understated confidence is grounded in its plethora of food markets and ever-evolving cast of creative eateries, and in its selection of pubs, entertainment and cultural pursuits.
Further afield, you'll pass inlets along eroded coastlines and a multitude of perfectly charming old fishing towns and villages. The scenery is every bit as enchanting as the best bits of Ireland, particularly along the Mizen Head, Sheep's Head and Beara peninsulas, where you can hike wild hills and touch Ireland's ancient past.
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Top attractions
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout County Cork.
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Cork City Gaol
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) guides you around the restored cells, which feature models of suffering prisoners and sadistic-looking guards. Take a bus to University College Cork (UCC), and from there walk north along Mardyke Walk, cross the river and follow the signs uphill (10 minutes). The tour is very moving, bringing home the harshness of the 19th-century penal system. The most common crime was that of poverty; many of the inmates were sentenced to hard labour for stealing loaves of bread. Atmospheric evening tours take place every weekday at 5.45pm (€12, booking required). The prison closed in 1923, reopening in 1927 as a radio station that operated until the 1950s. The on-site Governor's House has been converted into a Radio Museum where, alongside collections of beautiful old radios, you can hear the story of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi's conquest of the airwaves.
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Charles Fort
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. But there's much more here: the 18th- and 19th-century ruins inside the walls make for some fascinating wandering. It's 3km southeast of Kinsale along the minor road through Scilly; if you have time, hike there along the lovely coastal Scilly Walk. Built in the 1670s to guard Kinsale Harbour, the fort was in use until 1921, when much of it was destroyed as the British withdrew. Displays explain the typically tough lives led by the soldiers who served here and the comparatively comfortable lives of the officers.
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English Market
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 Irish Market nearby) – is a true gem, with its ornate vaulted ceilings, columns and polished marble fountain. Scores of vendors set up colourful and photogenic displays of the region's very best local produce, including meat, fish, fruit, cheeses and takeaway food. On a sunny day, take your lunch to nearby Bishop Lucey Park, a popular alfresco eating spot.
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Spike Island
This low-lying green island in Cork Harbour was once an important part of the port's defences, topped by an 18th-century artillery fort. In the second half of the 19th century, during the Irish War of Independence, and from 1984 to 2004 it served as a prison, gaining the nickname 'Ireland's Alcatraz'. Today you can enjoy a guided walking tour of the former prison buildings, then go off and explore on your own; the ferry departs from Kennedy Pier, Cobh. The guided tour takes in the modern prison, the old punishment block, the shell store (once used as a children's prison) and No 2 bastion with its massive 6in gun. Other highlights include the Gun Park, with a good display of mostly 20th-century artillery; the Mitchell Hall, with an exhibit on the Aud, a WWI German gun-running ship that was sunk in the entrance to Cork Harbour; and the Glacis Walk, a 1.5km trail that leads around the walls of the fortress, with great views of Cobh town and the harbour entrance. You'll need around four hours to make the most of a visit. There's a cafe and toilets on the island.
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Ilnacullin
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 garden on the then-barren outcrop. Topsoil was shipped in, landscaped gardens laid out, and subtropical species planted; camellias, magnolias and rhododendrons now provide a seasonal blaze of colour. Harbour Queen and Blue Pool run 10-minute ferry trips to the island past colonies of basking seals and a nesting site for white-tailed eagles. The centrepiece of the island is a magical Italianate garden; nearby a cypress avenue leads to a faux-Grecian temple with a stunning view of Sugarloaf Mountain. There are more views from the island's highest point, a 19th-century Martello tower, one of hundreds built around the coast to watch out for a possible Napoleonic invasion.
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Crawford Art Gallery
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 change from year to year. Highlights include paintings by Sir John Lavery, Jack B Yeats and Nathaniel Hone, and Irish women artists Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Sculpture Galleries contain snow-white plaster casts of Roman and Greek statues, created under the direction of Antonio Canova in the early 19th century, and gifted to King George IV by Pope Pius VII in 1818. London's Royal Academy lacked the space to store or exhibit them, so they were given to Cork 'to enable the artists of the sister kingdom to establish an adequate school of study'.
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Sky Garden
The Victorian country estate of Liss Ard is home to the remarkable Sky Garden, a piece of landscape art created by American artist James Turrell in 1992. You enter through a tunnel and emerge at the bottom of a grass-lined, oval crater, so that all you can see is sky. There's a plinth where two people can lie toe-to-toe and contemplate the heavens. Open days vary each year – check Liss Ard's Facebook page. The estate is 2km southeast of Skibbereen on the R596.
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St Fin Barre's Cathedral
Spiky spires, gurning gargoyles and elaborate sculpture adorn the exterior of Cork's Protestant cathedral, an attention-grabbing mixture of French Gothic and medieval whimsy. The grandeur continues inside, with marble floor mosaics, a colourful chancel ceiling and a huge pulpit and bishop's throne. Quirky items include a cannonball blasted into an earlier medieval spire during the Siege of Cork (1690). The cathedral sits about 500m southwest of the centre, on the spot where Cork's 7th-century patron saint, Fin Barre, founded a monastery. Most of the cathedral's ostentation is the result of an architectural competition held in 1863 and won by William Burges. Once victory was assured Burges promptly redrew his plans – with an extra choir bay and taller towers – and his £15,000 budget went out the window. Luckily, the bishop appreciated such perfectionism and spent the rest of his life fundraising for the project. Local legend says that the golden angel on the eastern side will blow its horn when the Apocalypse is due to start…
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Dunboy Castle
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 sheltered harbour of Bere Haven, a fantastic spot for a summer picnic. The castle was destroyed by English forces during the Siege of Dunboy in 1602. Dunboy is at the end of a narrow road (the L8935), which leaves the main road 2.5km southwest of Castletownbere (parking space for two or three cars). On the way to the castle, you pass the fenced-off shell of Puxley Mansion, a grand Victorian manor house that was once home to a copper-mining magnate and provided the inspiration for Clonmere in Daphne du Maurier's 1943 novel Hungry Hill. The manor was burnt out by the IRA in 1921; there have been attempts to restore it as a hotel, but it has lain abandoned since 2008.
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