Kinsale

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Overview

The picturesque yachting harbour of Kinsale (Cionn tSáile) is one of many colourful gems strung along the coastline of County Cork. Narrow, winding streets lined with galleries and gift shops, lively bars and superb restaurants, and a handsome natural harbour filled with yachts and guarded by a huge 17th-century fortress make it an engrossing place to spend a day or two.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

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…

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…

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…

Courthouse & Regional Museum

Kinsale

Based in the 17th-century courthouse that was used for the inquest into the sinking of the Lusitania, this eclectic museum contains local curiosities as…

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