Cork! What a wonderful place, resplendent in beauty and contrast from the bustling
City to the windswept and lonely Atlantic peninsulas.
Corkis indeed a massive county, the largest in Ireland by land mass and containing Cork, the largest city in the country after
Dublin (Cork people believe it is the real capital of Ireland !)
Please click on a location on the map of Cork to view a Virtual Tour.
Click on the locations on the map and wait for the virtual tour to load. Drag your mouse on the image to direct the viewing angle: up, down , left or right
Cork city is a thriving industrial area and port. Once it was a greater force with worldwide industrial giants such as Ford and Dunlop employing thousands of people directly and many more through service providers. Doom and gloom pervaded when they closed their doors. Many of Corks finest emigrated, mostly to the United States.
But then the Celtic Tiger arrived and
Cork too felt the good vibes it gave off. Now in place of the Ford and Dunlop factories are pharmaceutical giants such as Schering Plough together with many large chemical companies. Not all are popular with the environment protection groups because of alleged air pollution, but they do provide hundreds of jobs down around the Little Island area.
From the point of view of the visitor, Cork city and county have a huge amount of attractions to offer, from the Shandon Bells, to Fota Wildlife Park, Blarney Castle where you too can inherit the gift of the gab that all Cork people are possessed of by kissing the Blarney Stone, and on to the lovely West Cork, to towns such as Skibereen and Schull and the unforgettable Glengariff. From here you can get a boat to
Garnish Island and see the wonderful gardens with their tropical flowers and fauna, present only because the Gulf Stream delivers it’s benign atmospheric gifts to this part of west Cork.
Tourism is a huge industry in
Cork and one can see that they are well geared to take advantage of their location and history. A new airport terminal has been built to cater for current and projected numbers of tourists in the coming years, and the city
is well served by infrastructure such as rail and roads. But once you meander west forget about quality roads as they are so bad that it seems like they were designed to make you slow down and enjoy the scenery, which you should! Other large towns in
Cork are Kinsale, the gourmet capital of Ireland, with it’s collection of stunning restaurants , pubs and wonderful water activities.
Middletown is more of a market town to the east of Cork city and this is close the seaside town of Youghal which is tourist orientated. Major business towns include Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Mallow, Bandon and Macroom.
As a county it has bountiful range of leisure activities that appeal to all ages. Golf, sailing, hill and mountain climbing, equestrian and virtually anything you can think of.(ok no skiing!) If you are a golfer do try to play the Old Head of Kinsale. It is not cheap, but it is a course you’ll never forget for it’s quality layout and stunning scenery.
Fota Island to the east of Cork city is another superb course that has played host to Irish Open. However throughout Cork county there are dozens of quality golf courses to suit the beginner or the scratch golfer.
Whether you are Irish or a visitor from abroad, take time out to catch a game of Gaelic football or hurling.
Cork is one of the very few counties that are very strong in both codes, having won numerous All-Ireland titles in football and hurling. Legends like the great Christy Ring , Jack Lynch and the latter day Jimmy Barry Murphy abound in
Cork hurling folklore whilst Billy Morgan, Conor Counihan and Larry Tomkins are revered in football memories.
The visitor to Cork has a wonderful selection of entertainment to satisfy them. Traditional Irish music and dancing is strong in
Cork with a huge variety of venues hosting events.
To sum it up Cork has all the amenities, tradition and history which will interest and excite the visitor from home or abroad. Go there! And as they roar at football and hurling matches “Come on the RebelCounty”
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