Sightseeing in Ireland: Cork County
The City of Cork is the second city of Ireland. It boasts a healthy art scene and the highest ratio of good restaurants per capita in Ireland. Highlights for arts lovers are the Cork Opera House, Crawford Art Gallery and Firkin Crane Centre.
Further afield, County Cork is offers untamed wildernesses, long beaches and the 680 mile long coastline is dotted with bays and harbours that are a delight to discover by sail boat. The famous Blarney Stone at the Blarney Castle is visited by many thousands of tourists every year.
Historical Buildings and Monuments
Castle Bernard
Bandon
Tel: 353-21-427-3251
Blarney Castle
Blarney
Ireland
Tel: + 353 21 438 5252
Website: Blarney Castle
The Castle is famous for a stone reputed to have been that mentioned in the Bible as "Jacob's Pillow" and brought to Ireland by the Prophet Jeremiah. The legend tells us that this stone gives eloquence to those who kiss it and hence the Irish "gift of the gab".
Castlemartyr Carmelite Monastery
Castlemartyr
Tel: + 353 21 461 3274
Birthplace of Michael Collins
Clonakilty
Ireland
Cobh Cathedral
Cobh
Cork
Tel: + 353 21 481 3222
Fax: + 353 21 481 3488
E-mail: gercasey@iol.ie
St. Finbarr's Cathedral
Bishop Street
Cork
Tel: 021-496-3387
19th-century cathedral dedicated to the patron saint of Cork.
Timoleague Franciscan Friary
West Cork
The ruins of Timoleague Abbey stand at the end of the Courtmacsherry Bay, not far from Kinsale. Originally a Franciscan Friary (1240 a.d.) it was destroyed by the English in 1642.
Trinity Bridge
Morrison's Island
Cork
Tel:+ 353 21 427 3251
St. Ann's
One of the best known Cork attractions, the church was built in 1722.
Shandon
Cork
Tel: + 353 21 450 5906
Connagh Castle
Built in 1550s Sir Thomas Roe FitzGerald, Connagh Castle rises 85 feet from a great bed of limestone overlooking the Brade Valley.
Desmond Castle
Cork Street
Kinsale
Tel:+ 353 21 477 4855
Built as a custom house by the Earl of Desmond c. AD 1500.
James Fort
Kinsale
Tel: + 353 21 477 2234
Fastnet Lighthouse
Schull
Tel:+ 353 28 71 766
Places of Interest
Butter Exchange
John Redman Street
Cork
Tel:+ 353 21 427 3251
Opened in 1770, the Cork Butter Exchange continued trading for 150 years. Today the circular building has been restored as an arts and performance centre.
Drombeg Stone Circle
Drombeg
Skibbereen
Tel: + 353 28 71 766
Stone circle locally known as the Druid's Altar.
Temblebryan Stone Circle
Clonakilty (Cloch na Coillte, the "stone of the wood") derived its name from this stone circle. Today five massive blocks, one fallen, remain of a recumbent stone circle which probably originally consisted of nine stones. In the centre of the circle is a small quartz slab.
Shannonvale
Clonakilty
Tel: + 353 23 33 226
Lios-na-gCon
Clonakilty
Tel: + 353 23 33 302
Fax: + 353 23 34 449
Website: Lios-na-gCon
Archeological site with remains of an early Christian ring fort and farm settlement that was discovered and excavated in the late 1980s.
Wildlife, Scenery and Nature
Ilnacullin (Garnish Island)
Glengarrif
Bantry Bay
Tel: + 353 27 63 040
Fax: + 353 27 63 149
Garnish Island is located in sheltered harbour of Glengarriff . This small island of 15 hectares is well known for its botanic gardens.
Glengariff Woods
Kenmare Road
Glengarriff
Tel: + 353 27 63 084
Knockboy and Priest's Leap
Glengarriff
Tel: + 353 21 427 3251
Ballyhooly
Fermoy
Tel: + 353 21 427 3251
Corrin Hill
Fermoy
Tel: + 353 21 427 3251
Healy Pass
Healy Pass crosses the Beara Peninsula.
Beara
Tel: + 353 27 50 299
Lough Hyne
Europe’s first Marine Nature Reserve back in 1981
Skibbereen
Tel: + 353 21 427 3251
