Cork Strolls

Exploring Cork's Architectural Treasures

Gregory Bracken, Audrey Bracken

• Publisher: The Collins Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781788410403
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Cork has long been an important hub for international trade, including the lucrative transatlantic routes. This wealth is reflected in the city's fine architecture, which boasts a wide variety of styles, from Neoclassical to Gothic. Following on from their successful Dublin Strolls, the Brackens guide us on charming walks through Cork's architecture, sharing expert insights and intriguing historical detail along the way. Striking hand-drawn illustrations capture the beauty of Ireland's second city.

Each of the walks through the city starts where the previous one left off, allowing readers to extend their explorations. They are bookended by landmarks of the city skyline: to the north, the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne in Shandon and to the west, St Vincent's Church in Sunday's Well. In between, they meander through the city, taking in Ireland's tallest building, the hotel where Michael Collins spent his last night and classic Cork sights such as the English Market, St Fin Barre's Cathedral, and the old Beamish and Crawford brewery. There are also strolls covering outlying attractions like Fota House and Blarney Castle, as well asthe neighbouring seaside towns of Cobh and Kinsale.

This illuminating guide reveals the city and county in a whole new light.

NOTE: THE WALKS

The walks in this book are arranged around Cork’s different districts, such as the medieval city or the St Patrick’s Street area. Each one starts where the previous one left off and there are eight in all, starting with Shandon in the north and working all the way around to Sunday’s Well in the west. There is also a Further Afield section, which takes in buildings and places a little outside the city centre, such as the Lough and Blackrock Castle, as well as castles and country houses only a short distance from Cork and well worth a visit, like Fota House and Blarney Castle. There are also walks in Cobh and Kinsale, neighbouring seaside towns which have a shared history with the city. Finally, there is a chapter that explains the architectural styles mentioned in the book, as well as a glossary of architectural terms. The book ends with a listings section containing contact details for the attractions mentioned in it. All that remains is to wish you a pleasant time strolling around the beautiful city of Cork!

SHANDON

Approximate walking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

THE WALK: KEY

1 St Mary and St Anne’s Cathedral

2 St Anne’s Shandon

3 Skiddy’s Almshouse

4 Cork Butter Museum

5 Firkin Crane Theatre

6 St Mary’s

7 Cork Civic Trust

8 Dominican Priory

9 Murphy Heineken Brewery

WE BEGIN IN SHANDON, a hilly part of Cork with steep streets, some of them stepped, offering pretty views of the city below. Shandon is one of the best preserved parts of Cork, having escaped the floods and fires that periodically ravaged the city over the centuries. Its name comes from an old fort (sean dún) that used to be located here. It is also the most famous part of the city because of a song celebrating the bells of St Anne’s Shandon, a charming church behind which lies Skiddy’s Almshouse, a surprisingly intact early eighteenth-century poorhouse. A church dedicated to St Mary was built here in the Middle Ages but this was replaced by the lofty Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne in the nineteenth century. Close to this sit the imposing Cork Butter Museum and the Firkin Crane Theatre, while down on the River Lee sits the elegant St Mary’s, and next door to it is the Cork Civic Trust. The walk also takes you via the Cork Arts Theatre and the Murphy Heineken Brewery.

1 St Mary and St Anne’s Cathedral

This Catholic place of worship is also known as the North Cathedral and was intended as a statement of Catholic pride after years of discrimination in Ireland. Located in the hills north of the city, it gets its double name from the fact that it encompasses the ecclesiastical parish of St Mary and the civil parish of St Anne. Begun in 1799 on the site of an older chapel, it was completed by 1808. No one knows who the original architect was but after a fire that left the building little more than a shell in 1820, George Pain remodelled it in a light Gothic style. The central tower was added in 1862 by John Benson. Constructed of an attractive (and typically Cork) mix of red sandstone and grey limestone, it was intended to be even more impressive but the 60m (200-foot) spire was never added. The pinnacles on the tower’s four corners do, however, ensure that it is 3m (10 feet) taller than the nearby St Anne’s Shandon. Across the street from the cathedral’s south entrance is an imposing Presbytery, a symmetrical, gabled four-storey Victorian Gothic house in red brick and limestone.

DID YOU KNOW?

One of the vaults under an earlier incarnation of St Mary and St Anne’s Cathedral was opened around 1780 and the body of Reverend McDaniel was found to be in an almost perfect state of preservation. News of this ‘miracle’ quickly spread throughout the city and crowds of people came to see the body. The crowds grew so large that an army sergeant was posted as guard. Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of him and he decided to poke the body with his cane, breaking off its nose. He was punished for this lack of respect and the body was promptly reburied. A century later a local historian had the vault reopened; the body was still in a near-perfect state of preservation, with its nose still missing.

2 St Anne’s Shandon

Walk along Cathedral Street and turn right onto Chapel Street and you will see the tall tower of St Anne’s Shandon ahead of you. Named after the mother of the Virgin Mary, this is one of Cork’s most famous landmarks as well as one of the oldest churches still in use in the city. Built between 1722 and 1726, it occupies the site of St Mary’s (which was destroyed during the Siege of Cork in 1690). A tax on coal coming into the city was levied to pay for the rebuilding of Protestant churches damaged or destroyed during the siege. The church is in a simple, understated Neoclassicism, and its tower is the main attraction. Known locally as the ‘pepper pot’, because its top three storeys taper inwards, it is 36m (120 feet) high and topped by a small dome under a weather vane in the form of a gilded salmon. (Thought to be a reference to Cork’s fishing industry, it is more likely the Christian symbol based on Jesus having encouraged his early followers to be ‘fishers of men’.) Unusually, the tower’s south and west façades are grey limestone, while the east and north are red sandstone. There have been many theories for this, including weather protection, or that the different stones faced the landscape from which they came, or that they represented the colours of Cork’s flag (which is red and white). The most likely explanation, however, comes from Crofton Croker, who thought the more expensive limestone façades were placed facing the areas where most of the church’s parishioners and benefactors lived. The tower has wonderful views and is home to the famous bells which inspired the song ‘The Bells of Shandon’ by a homesick Fr Prout – the pen name of Fr Sylvester Mahony who spent most of his life in London. He died in Paris in 1866 but his remains were brought back to this churchyard. Each side of the tower also contains a clock face. Installed in 1847 and affectionately known as the ‘four-faced liar’, the hands on the east and west run slightly fast, especially in windy weather. This is probably because they are so very large (only Big Ben in London has larger clock faces).

St Anne’s Shandon

DID YOU KNOW?

The clock on St Anne’s Shandon was built for the benefit of poor people, to help ensure they took their medicines at the right time.

ST ANNE’S SHANDON

Opening times: Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sunday, 11.30 a.m. – 4 p.m. (March to May and October); Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday, 11.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m. (June to September); Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., Sunday, 11.30 a.m. – 3 p.m. (November to February)

Admission charges

3 Skiddy’s Almshouse

Leave St Anne’s Shandon and turn left onto the rather oddly named Bob and Joan’s Walk. Then take the next left onto a small alleyway and Skiddy’s Almshouse will be on your right. Founded as a charitable institution to look after elderly widows in 1620, it was the second almshouse funded by a wealthy Cork merchant called Stephen Skiddy (who had made his money in the London wine trade). It was unusual in that it was open to both Catholics and Protestants. This charming L-shaped building dates from 1718, making it one of the oldest in the city. The arched arcades were designed for the almshouse’s elderly inhabitants to walk about while protected from the elements. Almost demolished in the 1960s, it fortunately survived and was restored in the 1970s by the Cork Preservation Society. Restored again in 2005, it won an award for the excellence of the work. The almshouse used to form part of a complex of charitable buildings behind St Mary’s (the predecessor to St Anne’s Shandon). This included a Green Coat Hospital and School which had statues of a boy and a girl on its gateposts – hence the name Bob and Joan’s Walk. The hospital and school were demolished in the 1950s, and all that was salvaged were the two statues, which were moved to St Anne’s Shandon where they can still be seen in the bell tower.

Skiddy’s Almshouse

SKIDDY’S ALMSHOUSE (GARDEN ONLY)

Opening times: Daily, 2 – 4 p.m.

Admission: free

4 Cork Butter Museum

Go back up Bob and Joan’s Walk and turn left onto Exchange Street. The Cork Butter Museum will be on your right, with its main entrance in O’Connell Square, behind the large Neoclassical portico. This fascinating museum opened in 1997 and tells the story of Irish butter, with displays on the history of how it is made, a process that is thousands of years old. The Cork Butter Exchange began here as an outdoor market, on the grounds of the former Shandon Castle, in 1730. An indoor market was built in 1770, and it was here that butter was graded before being exported, not only to the United Kingdom (where it was the largest supplier of butter) but also to Europe, America and even the Caribbean. The exchange was extended by John Benson in 1849. His fine Neoclassical complex, with its magnificently scaled portico facing confidently down John Redmond Street, is centred on twin Roman Doric columns flanking the tall entrance archway which signals just how important the exchange was in the nineteenth century. By 1892 it was exporting half a million casks of butter annually; however, competition from other parts of Europe in the twentieth century led to it shutting down in 1924. The building became a hat factory before a fire shut that down in 1976. It was then revived as the Shandon Craft Centre in the 1980s and is a popular ve...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the author
• About the book
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• WALKS
• Architectural Styles
• Glossary
• Listings
• Imprint Page
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