Most of this list sits at two ends of the county. Cork Harbour holds Spike Island, a 15-minute ferry from Cobh, where a star-shaped fortress served as the largest prison in the world in the famine years; the guided tour and the self-guided walk together fill about three and a half hours. Fota Island and Great Island are in the same harbour and need no boat at all: a bridge and the railway tie Great Island to the mainland, and Fota is a short train ride from the city.
The rest are west. Garnish Island in Glengarriff Harbour is a garden Harold Peto laid out on bare rock, sheltered and warm enough for tree ferns, with a ferry that usually detours past a seal colony. Bere Island lies off Castletownbere at the mouth of Bantry Bay, compact enough to walk or cycle in a day past Martello towers and the restored guns of Lonehort Battery. Whiddy is ten minutes from Bantry Pier, with 31 residents and one pub; Sherkin is ten minutes from Baltimore; Cape Clear is further out, 12 km offshore and still a working Gaeltacht.
Dursey is the outlier. The only way on is a six-seat cable car, and the walk once you land is a loop of roughly 14 km. Sailings thin out well outside summer, so the western islands are easiest between late spring and early autumn.
A 15-minute ferry from Cobh reaches a star-shaped fortress that was once the largest prison in the world, with about three and a half hours of touring.
Bare rock in Glengarriff Harbour turned into a Harold Peto garden, warm enough for tree ferns, with a ferry that usually passes a seal colony.
A drowned river valley 35km long and one of the deepest harbours in Europe, with boats out to Whiddy, Bere and the Garinish gardens.
Wedge tombs, four Martello towers and a Victorian battery on a compact island at the mouth of Bantry Bay, made for walking and cycling.
The most southerly inhabited place in Ireland, a Gaeltacht island of 110 people where seals, basking sharks and whales pass 12 km offshore.
18 of 18 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Cork Harbour, cork
Spike Island sits in Cork Harbour, a 15-minute ferry from Cobh. Over 1,300 years it has been a monastery, a star-shaped military fortress and, in the famine era, the largest prison in the world. A guided tour and self-guided walk fill about three and a half hours.
Glengarriff, cork
John Annan Bryce bought a bare rock in Glengarriff Harbour in 1910 and hired architect-designer Harold Peto to turn it into a garden. A shelter-belt of pine and the Gulf Stream give the island a microclimate warm enough for New Zealand tree ferns and Chilean myrtle, reached by a 15-minute ferry that usually detours past a seal colony.
Bantry, cork
Bantry Bay is a ria – a drowned river valley – running 35km between the Beara and Sheep's Head peninsulas, and one of the deepest natural harbours in Europe. Boats run to Whiddy and Bere islands and the subtropical gardens on Garinish, and the bay carries the memory of a 1796 French invasion fleet and the 1979 Whiddy oil-terminal disaster.
Castletownbere, cork
Bere Island sits at the mouth of Bantry Bay, a short ferry from Castletownbere. Wedge tombs, four Martello towers and a Victorian battery mark centuries of use as a naval stronghold, all packed into a compact island made for walking and cycling.
cork
Cape Clear is the most southerly place you can live in Ireland, a Gaeltacht island of 110 people 12 km off the West Cork coast. Irish is still the working language, the September storytelling festival has run since 1994, and the waters around it draw seals, basking sharks and whales.
Cork, cork
Cork Harbour runs from the city quays out to the Atlantic, one of the largest natural harbours in the world. It was the last sight of Ireland for 2.5 million emigrants and the Titanic's final port of call. Today you can tour restored coastal forts, ferry out to Spike Island, cycle the Crosshaven greenway, or sail from the home of the world's oldest yacht club.
Beara Peninsula, cork
A six-seat cable car – Ireland’s only one over the sea – is the sole way onto Dursey, a near-empty island off the tip of the Beara Peninsula. Once across, a roughly 14 km loop of the Beara Way runs through bog and old stone walls to a Napoleonic signal tower, with gannets, dolphins and the odd whale offshore.
East Cork, cork
East Cork wraps around the sheltered waters of Cork Harbour, from the whiskey town of Midleton to the walled port of Youghal. Its headline days out are Spike Island’s fortress-prison, Cobh’s Titanic connection, the Jameson distillery and the Ballycotton cliff walk.
Cork Harbour, cork
Fota Island sits in Cork Harbour, a short train ride from the city, and packs an open-range wildlife park, a Regency mansion with a world-class arboretum, three championship golf courses and a five-star resort onto one estate. The gardens are free; the wildlife park is the draw for most visitors.
Bere Island, cork
Lonehort Battery is the largest of the seven gun batteries on Bere Island, built by the British Admiralty between 1898 and 1902 to guard Berehaven Harbour and the Royal Navy's dreadnought anchorage. Its restored northern sector keeps a 9.2-inch Mark X gun and two 6-inch guns above a mile-long dry moat, open for guided tours at €10 on summer Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
West Cork, cork
A 10-minute ferry from Baltimore reaches Sherkin, a five-kilometre island of dry-stone lanes, three sandy beaches and about 110 residents. Its headline sights – a 15th-century Franciscan friary, the O'Driscoll castle ruins and the Barrack Point lighthouse – are all free and outdoors.
Gougane Barra, cork
St Finbarr's Oratory stands on a small island in Lough Eiroe, in the Gougane Barra forest park, reached by a short causeway from the car park. The present chapel is 19th-century, raised on the site of the saint's 6th-century hermitage, with a holy well and the ruins of an old monastery beside it.
Bantry Bay, cork
Whiddy is a ten-minute ferry from Bantry Pier, home to 31 people and one pub. Walk or cycle the 5km loop past Napoleonic batteries and a WWI seaplane memorial, then eat seafood at the Bank House. It was here, in January 1979, that the Betelgeuse tanker disaster killed 50.
Cork Harbour, cork
Cork Harbour, cork
West Cork, cork
cork
cork
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