Cork City Guide

English Market, Angel & Bells

From the station along the curving St Patrick's Street, beneath which ships still anchored until 1780, into the English Market of 1788, where the Queen had to laugh in 2011. Across the river to the cathedral with its golden resurrection angel and the star-shaped Elizabeth Fort with its city view. Then up to Shandon: ring the bells yourself, climb the tower with the "four-faced liar" – and learn in the Butter Museum why Cork was once the butter capital of the world.

1. St. Patrick's Street – Cork's main street makes an elegant curve, and it is no planner's whim: until around 1780 the "Pana", as Cork people call it, was an arm of the River Lee with quays – the curve follows the old watercourse exactly, and the merchant fleet once anchored beneath the paving. The Catalan architect Beth Galí gave the street its present face in the early 2000s with its striking slanted light masts. "Doing Pana", the up-and-down promenade, is a discipline of its own here – simply fall in line.
2. English Market – Trading has gone on in this hall since 1 August 1788 – the name comes from the Protestant, "English" city corporation that laid out the market, to set it apart from the later "Irish Market". Today fish, cheese, olives and Cork peculiarities like tripe and drisheen pile up beneath the arches. The market became world-famous on 20 May 2011: during the historic state visit, fishmonger Pat O'Connell made Queen Elizabeth II laugh heartily – the photo went around the world, the punchline with it: a crowned visit to the "English" market of the rebel city. Up on the gallery, the Farmgate Café serves market cooking with a view of the bustle.
3. St. Fin Barre's Cathedral – Three spires, over a thousand sculptures and an architect with a sense of mission: William Burges built Cork this neo-Gothic cathedral from 1865 and gave the city the golden resurrection angel on the choir roof on top. Around it winds Cork's favourite legend: on Judgement Day, they say, the angel will blow his trumpets, and the Cork people will pass first through heaven's gate. The punchline comes from the criminal file: in 1998 the two metre-long trumpets were stolen and had to be replaced. Inside, the mosaics reward, as do the 1,200-plus sculptures Burges designed himself, right down to the door handles.
4. Elizabeth Fort – Right behind the cathedral a star watches over the city: Elizabeth Fort, begun in 1601 and extended to its present star shape in the 1620s, served in turn as fortress, barracks – and from 1817 as a prison, from 1822 mainly a women's prison, from which convicts were shipped to Australia. Today access is easy, and from the ramparts you get the best free panorama of the inner city: the colourful houses, the church towers, and over on the northern hill the two-tone tower of Shandon, your next destination.
5. St. Anne's Shandon – The Shandon tower is two-toned because Cork was thrifty: red sandstone from the old Shandon castle on two sides, white limestone from a disused abbey on the others. Up top, instead of a cock, a golden salmon turns in the wind, probably a salute to the fishermen of the Lee. The real reason to come: you may ring the eight bells of 1752 yourself – on numbered pulls, sheet music provided, half of Cork listening in. Then it is further up, past the tower clock of 1847, the "four-faced liar": its four dials never ran quite in step, and they still do not after the latest restoration. In Cork they say that only on the hour do all four agree. From the balcony: 360 degrees of Cork.
6. Cork Butter Museum – Butter sounds modest – here it was world economy: in the 19th century Cork's butter market was considered the largest trading place for butter on the planet, graded under a strict quality system and shipped as far as India and Australia in casks that survived the journey around half the world. The museum in the old Butter Exchange building of 1849 tells this improbable story, from medieval bog butter finds to the Kerrygold brand. Small, curious and very Irish – the ideal breather after the tower.
7. Emmet Place & Opera House – Downhill back by the river, the loop ends at Emmet Place: here stands the Cork Opera House, whose history mirrors the city's – opened in 1855 as the Athenaeum, declared an opera house in 1877, burned to its walls in 1955 and reopened in 1965 as a then ultra-modern new build. Today it stages everything from opera to stand-up. For the way back to the station take the route across St Patrick's Bridge: from there you get the view of the colourful riverside rows and steep Patrick's Hill – and understand why Cork people consider their city the real capital.