Suggested 3 Day Couple Itinerary in Cork City

Day 1

Lunch & Dinner in NORTH Eatery 

Enjoy a spot of light lunch in NORTH Eatery– before you explore the wonderful places to visit in Cork City.   NORTH Eatery  & Bar was launched at The Address Cork. NORTH  is committed to using locally sourced ingredients and provides a relaxed environment for our guests and customers for every visit.  NORTH Eatery and Bar also boasts Cork’s newest outdoor decking area which is a huge attraction for outdoor BBQs, social and corporate gatherings, with customers enjoying fantastic ambiance, great food and spectacular views over Cork City.

The English Market

Cork’s English Market has served the people of Cork in the face of famine, flood, war and multiple recessions. During this unprecedented public health crisis, we want to remain open to serve you, our customers. The English Market is, above all else, a food market for essential fresh produce.

The mix of traders in the English Market is as diverse as at any time of its existence. Small stalls sit alongside larger businesses, fledgling traders beside long-established family businesses passed down from one generation to the next. Meats and fish, herbs and spices, fruit and vegetables, sauces and oils, chocolates and cakes, cheeses and pastas – the Market caters for all culinary tastes and all eating occasions!! You’ll also find crockery, t-shirts, novelty items, clothes alterations and art – an eclectic mix itself creating a diversity of customers, adding to the unique atmosphere of the English Market. Having experienced the sights, sounds and smells of the Market, customers can unwind and sample it’s tastes and enjoy the banter from the various cafés, delis and food plates from the atypical stalls.

Shopping in Cork City

Patrick Street in the city centre is the traditional shopping area, with a wide range of department stores including:

• Penneys
• Dunnes Stores
• Debenhams
• Brown Thomas
• French Connection.

Merchant’s Quay Situated right in the heart of Cork City, Merchant’s Quay is home to many top brand shops such as:

• Crisis
• California
• M&S
• Brian De Staic Jewellers
• Norma Jeans
• Laura Ashley
• Ticket Master outlet

Opera Lane is the newest addition to Cork’s retail district. This pedestrianised street provides a range of retail outlets including:

• River Island
• H&M
• Topshop
• GAP
• Next
• New Look
• Vila
• Kuyichi
• CC Viyella
• Compu-B.

Day 2

Time to visit the Beach – so many to choose from

Ballycotton Bay

Ballycotton is the hidden gem of East Cork. It is a small picturesque fishing village which sits on a rocky-ledge overlooking Ballycotton Bay and is surrounded by sandy beaches. Only 40 minutes from Cork airport and Cork City, You can enjoy the freshest of fish served in award winning restaurants or from the local gluten free chippy straight from the boats in Ballycotton Harbour. You will receive a warm local welcome in our traditional pubs, there is live music in the village every weekend and the more energetic can enjoy our cliff side Pitch n Putt course or Ballycotton’s internationally acclaimed cliff walk.

Ballycotton is surrounded by wonderful beaches. In the village there is a small beach called the Conger by Ballycotton Pier. For the more adventurous swimmers you can swim from “The men’s bathing area” which is accessed by steps down to a rocky platform on your left going towards the Cliff Walk. In the middle of the village there is a slipway known locally as “The Cow” and here you will find a rocky beach which is great for rock pools.

Ballycotton Beaches: – When the tide is out you can walk for miles from one beach to the next (but you will have to cross little rivers). It really is amazing

Silverstrand beach can be accessed from Ballycotton village on foot.
Ballynamona is a very safe beach for children to swim in and there is plenty of sand to built sand castles.
Ardnahinch has a car park and slip road to the beach. Between here and Garryvoe beach there are some great rocks for children to climb.
Garryvoe is a mixed pebble beach and a great destination for families. It has a children’s playground, shop, picnic area, car park, wheelchair access to the beach, public toilets & Garryvoe Hotel which serves seafood, steaks and more, as well as a children’s menu.
Ballywilling is the perfect beach it you want a quieter time. There is a car park and slip road to the beach.
Ballycrenane has a car park with good access to the beach. This is also a good spot for beach fishing.

Youghal Front Strand

Front strand is a sandy beach located within walking distance of Youghal town just off the N25. The beach is located just to the west of the mouth of the great River Blackwater. The town of Youghal is designated an Irish Heritage Town with its rich history and well preserved medieval town walls.Here you will find plenty of shops and cafes. It is a pleasant beach for walking and joins up with neighbouring Claycastle and Redbarn beaches to form a 3 mile (5km) stretch of beach.. Nearby Ballyvergen Marsh is a site of ornithological and botanical interest and of regional importance.

Redbarn Beach

Redbarn is a breath-taking wide open strand with miles of blue flag beach. At any time of the year, to walk along its length is a wonderful thing to do, with all that peace, quite and fresh air. After working up a hunger and/or thirst and because you are situated so close to Youghal, we highly recommend taking in one of the many great restaurants in the town.
Cork may not always have the most idyllic weather conditions, but it certainly has many great beaches for a fun day out. Whether you are looking for a romantic walk on the beach, or just somewhere to bring the kids and the dog for some fresh air, Redbarn Strand is a splendid stretch of land for all to enjoy.

Day 3

Fitzgerald’s Park

Fitzgerald Park home to Cork Public Museum on the Mardyke is just a short distance from Cork City centre and the University College Cork. Fitzgerald’s Park where the visitor and local alike can enjoy a riverside on the banks of the river Lee. Fitzgerald’s Park named after a previous Lord Mayor of Cork in 1901, Edward Fitzgerald, offers a quite retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city, with its beautiful tree lined avenues, brimming flower beds and rose garden to its many statues and sculptures and the large central fountain, this 18 acre park is a wonderful treat. Fitzgerald’s Park is a quiet haven, which has a playground for the children and a cafe to enjoy the view of the river Lee and across to the gardens and houses of the Sunday’s Well area. The park is also home to the famous “Shakey Bridge” which has recently been totally renovated.

St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork

The Cathedral Church of St Colman, usually known as Cobh Cathedral, sometimes as Queenstown Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Cobh, Ireland. It is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Cloyne. It overlooks Cork harbour from a prominent position. Construction began in 1868 and was not completed until over half a century later due to increases in costs and revisions of the original plans. With the steeple being 91.4 metres tall (300 ft), the cathedral is the tallest church in Ireland. It used to be the second-tallest, only behind St John’s Cathedral in Limerick which was 94 metres tall, but newer measurements have shown that the St John’s spire is 81 metres tall and therefore only the fourth tallest church in Ireland.

Farran Woods

Farran is a small Park that has a lot to offer in terms of activities and features. It has a diverse mixture of tree and shrub species that make it attractive all year round for visiting. It’s location on the southern shore of Inniscarra lake offer fantastic views of the reservoir and the many rowers at every level who train here, from amateur to Olympian. The lake or reservoir was created in the mid-1950’s by flooding agricultural lands to store water for the nearby Inniscarra hydroelectric generating station.
Activities include – Aerial Trials, Zip wires, playground, nature walks, Orienteering, rowing.

Spike Island

In the last 1300 years Spike island has been home to rioters and redcoats, captains and convicts, monks and monasteries and sinners and saints. Its beautiful 104 acres have housed an IslandMonastery, Fortress, Prison and Homes and today the island can be reached by a short and scenic ferry from the heritage town Cobh. Once on the island, visitors join Ireland’s best storytellers for a mesmerising insight into the personal stories of this unique corner of the Ancient East.

Enter the 200 year old Fort Mitchel, the 24 acre star shaped Fortress built to defend an empire that became the largest prison in the world in the 1850’s during the famine years. Tens of thousands of Irish men and women were transported to America and Australia from Spikes prison. The island would be used by both the British and Irish army and navy before becoming a prison again in the 1980’s.

Today’s visitors can explore the vast Fortress, enter the infamous Punishment block and modern prison cells, see Ireland’s largest military gun park, journey through the tunnels to the harbour defence guns, enter the former childrens prison and explore the 104 acres of villages, beaches and grasslands.

 

Take a look at the “Pure Cork Map” to find your way around the activities we have to offer in our beautiful City of Cork.    Print it off before you come or keep it handy on your phone.  We can’t wait to welcome to The Address Cork.