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Large park with dozens of animal and bird species, and Arboretum with many rare trees and plants.
Fota Wildlife Park is a 100-acre (40 ha) wildlife park located on Fota Island, near Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland. Opened in 1983, it is an independently funded, not-for-profit charity that is one of the leading tourism, wildlife and conservation attractions in Ireland. The park had an attendance of 455,559 visitors in 2017, making it the eleventh most popular paid attraction in Ireland for that year.
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If pirates ever try to attack Cork from the moon, this place will give ample warning. It was first built in 1582 to defend the harbour and its shipping, but twice burnt down without the help of any marauders. The present castle is a cod-medieval structure of 1828; in 2007 it became an astronomy museum and observatory.
This 45,000 capacity stadium hosts the biggest games. It's the home ground of Cork GAA, the county team, playing Gaelic football and hurling. They have a secondary home stadium at Páirc Uí Rinn, capacity 16,440, and club games are usually played at this and similar-sized grounds: Nemo Rangers for Gaelic football, Blackrock for hurling, St Finbarr's play both. The fixture list is posted by the national GAA.
"The Rebel Army" were relegated in 2025 - they're a yo-yo team and now play soccer in League of Ireland First Division, the second tier. The playing season is Feb–Nov and matches are usually on Friday evenings. Turner's Cross Stadium (capacity 7485) is 1.5 km south of city centre. Take a bus to Evergreen Road or walk; you may not walk on South Link Road.
Honora Nagle (1718-1784) pioneered Catholic education for girls in an era when that was repressed by the Penal Laws. She founded an Ursuline convent and the Presentation Sisters, which inspired Edmund Rice in Waterford to found the Presentation Brothers and later Christian Brothers. The museum depicts Nano's life, times and works, and the garden is an oasis of tranquillity.
The permanent collection includes paintings by Jack Yeats and Sean Keating, and a series of plaster casts of classical statues, which King George IV found tedious. The gallery is closed until mid- 2028 for rebuilding.
Shandon Bells
Shandon is the neighbourhood climbing the hill along the old road to Mallow. This Church of Ireland (Anglican) church was built in 1722; the famously inaccurate clock on its tower became known as "the four-faced liar". The church is best known for the eight "bells of Shandon that sound so grand on / the pleasant waters of the River Lee" as the 19th century ballad has it. (Who but Francis Mahony aka "Father Prout" would have dared rhyme Moscow with kiosk-o?) St Anne's bells are hung "dead" and rung by an Ellacombe apparatus. The most sonorous peel of bells is from change-ringing, which rotates them through 360°, but this demands skill and is sometimes impractical to build. It also incites scandalous behaviour, according to the Rev Henry Thomas Ellacombe of Gloucestershire, who in 1821 devised a mechanism whereby hammers struck stationary bells as resolutely as they would strike down temptation to sin. St Anne's is one of the two dozen churches in Britain and Ireland that still have functioning apparatus, and visitors can ding the bells from the tower first floor. There are 132 steps to the tower balcony, with a narrow squeeze as you clamber through the belfry, hoping that the group below doesn't choose that moment to start chiming.