Overview
Great Island is the second-largest island in Ireland after Achill – 53.1 km² of it – yet you can drive on without realising you’ve left the mainland. A stone bridge at Belvelly (1803) and the Cork–Cobh railway carry you straight across the channel, and the island works largely as a commuter base for the city, with around 14,000 people living here, most of them in Cobh.
That’s the honest framing for a visit: Great Island is, for nearly all visitors, Cobh. If you have a day, spend it in the town – the Titanic and emigration history, St Colman’s Cathedral over the harbour, the painted terraces – and treat the rest of the island, the old forts and the marsh, as quiet add-ons rather than the main event.
History
The island’s oldest recorded name is Ard-Neimheadh, the ‘high island of Neimheadh’, after a legendary leader in the early Irish origin-myths. In the early 13th century the Anglo-Norman Hodnett family built Belvelly Castle to hold the narrow tidal crossing; the Barrys (de Barra) later took the island, and for centuries it was Barrymore Island, ‘the great island of the Barrys’.
Its modern shape was set by the harbour’s military importance. Sitting over the naval anchorage at Haulbowline and the fortress on Spike Island, Great Island was ringed with British defences in the 18th and 19th centuries – Cove Fort above Cobh, and Martello towers at Belvelly, Monning and Rossleague. Cobh itself grew into a major shipping and emigration port: between 1848 and 1950 more than 2.5 million people left Ireland through it, and in 1912 it was the Titanic’s final port of call before the Atlantic. From 1849 to 1920 the town was renamed Queenstown for Queen Victoria’s visit, before reverting to Cobh.
What to see
- Cobh – the reason most people come. The Cobh Heritage Centre tells the emigration and Titanic story by the quays, St Colman’s Cathedral looms over the waterfront, and the steep, brightly painted ‘Deck of Cards’ terrace is the town’s most photographed row.
- Cove Fort – an 18th-century battery above Cobh’s western approach, with the long harbour view that explains why it was built there.
- Belvelly Castle – the Hodnetts’ keep at the bridge, privately restored and best seen from the bridge or the passing train; you can’t go in.
- The Martello towers – the three squat towers at Belvelly, Monning and Rossleague still stand around the shore as harbour sentinels.
- Cuskinny Marsh – a small coastal wetland reserve east of Cobh, worth an hour for birdwatchers; spring and early summer are the busiest for migrants.
The Port of Cork’s cruise berth at Cobh is the only dedicated cruise-ship berth in the Republic, so on a docking day the quayside fills with day-trippers and the town is at its liveliest – and its most crowded.
Walking and wildlife
The island is flat and easily walked or cycled, mostly along quiet country roads – walkers do circuits of the island this way, and there’s a Coillte woodland at Marlogue for a shorter forest loop near the water. Don’t expect a manicured coastal trail network: outside the town this is a lived-in farming island, and much of the interest is the harbour itself.
That harbour earns its keep for wildlife. Bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises work the deeper channels and are seen regularly from the shore and from Cobh, and the Great Island Channel is a Special Area of Conservation, so the mudflats and marshes are protected and monitored.
Practical information
- Getting there: Belvelly Bridge is the only road on and off the island, so it backs up at peak times. The train is often easier – Cork Commuter Rail stops at Carrigaloe, Rushbrooke and Cobh – and a seasonal passenger ferry runs from near Carrigaloe across to Passage West, handy for cyclists and walkers skipping the bridge.
- Distance: Cobh is roughly a 25-minute drive (about 24 km) east of Cork city via the N25, or about 25 minutes by train.
- Parking: There’s parking around Cobh town centre and the quays, but it fills fast when a cruise ship is in – come earlier in the day on those dates.
- Nearby: Spike Island by ferry from Cobh, Fota Wildlife Park on the neighbouring island, and the naval base at Haulbowline.
If you only do one thing, walk the Cobh waterfront up to the cathedral for the view back over the harbour, then time your departure to dodge a cruise-ship arrival – check the Port of Cork schedule before you set the day.