Cork & Cobh (Cove), Ireland

Cobh, Ireland

After yesterday’s awful weather it was a relief to arrive in a sunny Cobh. It was literally a hop, step and jump from the gangway to the train station, so we decided to go to Cork first. We had found an ‘ orienteering’ heritage trail map of Cork that we decided to follow.

Here are some of the highlights. Some were on the map and some we just discovered on the way. The clock tower at Anne’s we found particularly amusing as the 4 clock faces all showed different times and the chimes, which sound every 1/4hour, seemed to be continually going for one of the 4 clocks. We later found out that the clock tower is referred to as ‘the 4 liars’.

The 4 liars

Not an optical illusion – they really were that wonky!

One of the many bridges that we traversed across the River Lee.

St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral

Elizabeth Fort had a very Tassie connection – some of the female prisoners transported from here were shipwrecked on King Island.

Although called an orienteering map – it wasn’t really. But it seemed like a good way to visit the sights.

Sight seeing and necessary fringe trim at a hairdresser completed, it was time for a coffee and toilet stop before returning on the train to Cobh.

From the train station it was a rather steep walk up the hill to get the iconic ‘deck of cards’ photo. The ‘deck of cards’ are 23 colourful houses that cascade down a rather steep street.

The typical ‘deck of cards’ photo with the cathedral spire in the background that you get from the park across the road.

The photo you can get from the street above if you are lucky enough to be tall with arms long enough to rest your camera on top of the very high stone wall.

Having climbed to the top of town, we decided to stay high and contour around to the other side of town.

It was a lovely town with lots of green spaces and lots of kids out playing – something that we have not seen for quite some time in our travels despite it being holidays here.

What goes up eventually must go down!

Coral Princess just visible in background

Across the other side of town was the Titanic memorial garden. Cobh (then called Queenstown) was the last port of call for the Titanic where the last 123 passengers boarded by tender.

Memorial for those of the 123 Cobh passengers that did not survive.

From the memorial garden we made our way back to the centre of town past the many other colourful houses and buildings.

Cobh was the town from which many Irish emigrants left to move to the United States. But it is their connection to Australia of which they are most proud. They consider Spike Island, which is in their harbour, as the birth place of Australia. Spike Island was used as a prison for female convicts who were then transported to Australia. Because we were an Australian cruise ship they were holding an ‘Australia Day’. The park and pubs were all decorated with Australian bunting and there was live music in the pubs and a party in the park.

Our last activity for the day was the Titanic Experience. The original White Star building has been converted so that you experience elements of the journey as a 3rd class passenger boarding the ship in Cobh, being on the ship and then witnessing the sinking from the safety of a life boat.