Castles and Historic Sites in Co. Cork
14 places
1.Fastnet Rock Lighthouse
The last sight of home for emigrants
A 54-metre granite tower stranded in the Atlantic off West Cork, Fastnet Rock was the last sight of home for thousands of emigrants — Ireland's "Teardrop" is now reached only by boat.
- Highlights
- Tallest and widest rock lighthouse in Ireland and Britain, rising 54 m
- Known as Ireland's Teardrop
- Only reachable by boat - landings are not permitted
2.Baltimore Beacon
a 50ft white tower on a 160ft clifftop
A 50ft white cone of a beacon, built in 1849 and known locally as "Lot's Wife", stands on a 160ft cliff at the mouth of Baltimore harbour — free to visit and reached by a short walk or a steep clifftop scramble.
- Highlights
- 50ft white conical beacon above Baltimore harbour
- Locally nicknamed Lot's Wife
- Built 1849 as a coastal warning beacon
3.Allihies Mountain Copper Mine Shaft
a copper empire that once employed 1,600 people
At the tip of the Beara Peninsula, the fenced collars of Allihies' 19th-century copper mine shafts still dot a wild Atlantic hillside above Ballydonegan beach. The village museum and its café are the natural base for exploring them.
- Highlights
- Fenced shaft collars scattered across the hillside
- Cornish engine houses, including the Man Engine building
- 11 km waymarked Copper Mine Trail
4.Blackwater Castle, Castletownroche, Cork, Ireland
A 12th-century castle you can hire for the weekend
A 12th-century Norman castle on a rocky promontory above the River Awbeg, still a lived-in family home and hireable for weddings, parties and group stays. Its 50-acre estate is a protected nature reserve with a Sheela na Gig, a holy well and 2,500-year-old defences.
- Highlights
- Norman round tower of the late 12th century
- Sheela na Gig carved stone
- St Patrick's Holy Well and 200 rock-cut steps
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
5.Blarney Castle & Gardens
Kiss the Stone of Eloquence at a tower's top
A 600-year-old MacCarthy tower house wrapped in 100 acres of gardens, where visitors queue to kiss the Blarney Stone, the legendary Stone of Eloquence, at the top of the battlements.
- Highlights
- Kiss the Blarney Stone, the Stone of Eloquence, at the top of the tower
- 128 steep steps up to the battlements
- The mystical Rock Close with its druid's altar and witch's kitchen
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
6.Castledonovan
a 1560 tower house with a corner blown off
A four-storey O'Donovan tower house of 1560 on a rocky crag above the River Ilen, its south-west corner blasted away by Cromwellian gunpowder and left as a free, unguided ruin.
- Highlights
- Free, unguided O'Donovan tower house
- South-west corner blown out by Cromwellian explosives
- Surviving machicolated doorway and corner bartizans
7.Charles Fort
A 17th-century star fort guarding a harbour
One of Ireland's largest military installations, Charles Fort is a massive 17th-century star-shaped fortress whose ramparts overlook Kinsale Harbour. It withstood a 13-day siege in the Williamite Wars before falling.
- Highlights
- Star-shaped 17th-century fortress
- Outer defences up to 16 metres high
- Rampart views over Kinsale Harbour
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Wheelchair access
8.Doneraile Court
a Georgian mansion in a free 160-hectare deer park
A Georgian mansion of the St Leger family towering over 160 hectares of Capability Brown-style parkland, with rivers, deer and free-to-roam walks around it. Only the guided tour of the house is ticketed.
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
9.Fota House
Regency mansion on an island with its own railway station
The ancestral home of the Smith-Barry family, Fota House is described as the finest example of Regency architecture in Ireland, set among a world-renowned arboretum and restored Victorian working gardens on Fota Island — the only Irish island with its own railway station.
- Highlights
- Over 70 rooms in one of Ireland's finest Regency mansions
- Landscape painting collection among the best outside the National Gallery of Ireland
- 11-acre arboretum of rare tender and exotic trees
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Restrooms · Wheelchair access
10.Spike Island
Ferry to a fortress prison with 12 museums
A 104-acre island in Cork Harbour once home to a monastery, a fortress and one of Ireland's most notorious prisons, reached by a 15-minute ferry from Cobh.
- Highlights
- Guided tour with an expert storyteller included in the ticket
- More than a dozen museums and exhibitions
- 104-acre island with scenic walking trails
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Restrooms · Wheelchair access
11.Kanturk Castle
A never-roofed 1600s castle, free all year
Kanturk Castle, known locally as the Old Court, is a great limestone house begun around 1601 for MacDonagh MacCarthy, Lord of Duhallow, and abandoned unfinished — a roofless shell open to the sky on a low rise south of the town, free to visit all year.
- Highlights
- Roofless 1601 fortified house, never completed or roofed
- Four-storey block with five-storey corner towers
- Finely carved Renaissance doorway on the north front
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Wheelchair access
12.Youghal Clock Gate Tower
A 1777 gaol tower with 360° rooftop views
A 1777 clock tower straddling Youghal's main street, where costumed storytellers lead you through 700 years of history and up to a 360° view over the bay.
- Highlights
- 700 years of history in a tower built in 1777
- Immersive costumed storyteller tours
- 360° views from the fifth-floor platform
13.Mallow Castle
White deer herd gifted by Queen Elizabeth I
Mallow Castle pairs the ruins of a 13th-century castle and a Jacobean fortified house with 33 acres of riverside parkland, grazed by a herd of white fallow deer descended from animals gifted by Queen Elizabeth I. Entry to the grounds is free.
- Highlights
- Ruins of a 13th-century castle
- 16th-century Jacobean fortified house
- White fallow deer herd dating to 1600
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
14.Dunboy Castle
the 1602 siege ruin at the mouth of Berehaven Bay
A dramatic ruined castle on the shore of Berehaven Bay, once the stronghold of the O'Sullivan Bere clan and the scene of a famous 1602 siege. It is a free, open-access ruin reached by a short walk from a roadside parking bay.
- Highlights
- Ruined stronghold of the O'Sullivan Bere clan
- Site of the 1602 Siege of Dunboy
- Free, open-access ruins