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Photo: Chmee2 or Mates, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Impressive star-shaped fort, built 1677-82 over the earlier Ringcurran Castle, and named for the restored King Charles II. It became known as the "new fort", complementing the older James Fort across the harbour. It was built to repulse seaborne attack but was overlooked by higher ground and vulnerable to landward attack. That enabled John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, to capture town and fort in 1690 in the Williamite Wars. Various repairs and additions were made over the next 200 years and it remained a British military base until Irish independence in 1921. It then fell derelict before being restored from the 1970s, with an exhibition area in the former commander's quarters.
Charles Fort is a trace italienne fortification, a bastion fort with one section of the outer wall built in star fashion. It is located at the southern end of the village of Summer Cove, on Kinsale harbour, County Cork, Ireland. First completed in 1682, Charles Fort was sometimes historically referred to as the "new fort", to contrast with James' Fort which had been built on the other side of Kinsale harbour before 1607. The fort is now operated as a heritage tourism site by the Heritage Ireland arm of the Office of Public Works.
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This was built 1602-07 after the siege of Kinsale, over the earlier Castle Ny-Parke, and named for King James I. It had a good range of fire over the harbour approaches from its "blockhouse" and remained in use when Charles Fort was completed. But after the siege of 1690, the new fort became the military base and James Fort fell derelict. You can stroll round anytime. It's only 200 m from town across the river but you have to cross the bridge, making it 3 km and a scenic turnaround point for walkers and joggers.
Small museum depicting local history. When the ocean liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915, most survivors and bodies were taken to Cobh. But some bodies were brought here and the inquest into the sinking was opened.
Well-preserved tower house built circa 1500 by the Earl of Desmond as a custom house. After 1641 it became a prison mostly for Spanish and French captured at sea — in 1747 a fire killed 54 French prisoners — and later for Americans. It continued as the town jail for another century and was a workhouse during the 19th century famines. In the 1990s it was done up as a museum (including for a time as the "International Museum of Wine") but has been closed "for renovation" at least since 2010.