Family Attractions & Zoos in County Cork

Corcaigh · Munster · 77 places

County Cork (Corcaigh) in Munster features 77 mapped family attractions & zoos, led by Stone of Eloquence, Garnish Island, and Collegiate Church of Saint Mary. Across these 77 listings, 19 feature verified photography and 65 include mapped nearby public parking. Zoos, aquariums, theme parks, and visitor attractions.

Showing 24 of 77 places

Stone of Eloquence — photo by Alan Heardman

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Stone of Eloquence

The Blarney Stone (Irish: Cloch na Blarnan) is a block of Carboniferous limestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle, Blarney, about 8 kilometres (5 miles) from the centre of Cork City, Ireland. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of the gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446. The castle is a popular tourist site in Ireland, attracting visitors from all over the world to kiss the stone and tour the castle and its gardens. The word blarney has come to mean "clever, flattering, or coaxing talk". Irish politician John O'Connor Power defined it this way: "Blarney is something more than mere flattery. It is flattery sweetened by humour and flavoured by wit. Those who mix with Irish folk have many examples of it in their everyday experience." Letitia Elizabeth Landon described its contemporary meaning in an article entitled "Blarney Castle" in 1832.

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Garnish Island

Garinish, or Garnish Island, (Irish: Garinis; also known as Ilnacullin) is an island in Glengarriff Bay, an inlet of Bantry Bay, near the shore of the Beara Peninsula in County Cork, Ireland. It is a tourist attraction with walled gardens and a Martello tower.

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Collegiate Church of Saint Mary

The Collegiate Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, also known as St Mary's Collegiate Church, is a large Anglican church in Youghal, east County Cork, Ireland. Dating to roughly 1220 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it is part of Youghal Union of Parishes, in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. St Mary's RMP (Record of Monuments and Places) number is CO067-029003.

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Doneraile House

Doneraile Court is a late-17th century country house near the town of Doneraile in County Cork, Ireland. It stands in 160 hectares (400 acres) of walled parkland known as Doneraile Park or Doneraile Estate. The house remained the seat of the St Leger family from the time of construction until the mid-20th century. The park, which is managed by the Office of Public Works (OPW), is open all year with free admission. As of 2023, Doneraile Park was the most visited free tourist attraction in County Cork, and the fifth most visited OPW site in the country.

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Trabolgan Holiday Village

Trabolgan (Irish: Trá Bholgan, meaning 'strand of Bolgan') is a self catering holiday village on a 140-acre (0.57 km2) site which was a former country estate in the civil parish of Trabolgan, County Cork, Ireland. The holiday camp was registered on 1 May 1984 (1984-05-01) and officially opened on 29 June 1985 (1985-06-29).

GeneralSaint Fin Barre's Cathedral

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Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral (Irish: Ardeaglais Naomh Fionnbarra) is a Gothic Revival three-spire Church of Ireland cathedral in Cork city, Ireland. It is located on the south bank of the River Lee and dedicated to Finbarr of Cork, patron saint of the city. Formerly the sole cathedral of the Diocese of Cork, it is now one of three co-cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Christian use of the site dates back 7th-century AD when, according to local lore, Finbarr of Cork founded a monastery. The original building survived until the 12th century, when it either fell into disuse or was destroyed during the Norman invasion of Ireland. Around 1536, during the Protestant Reformation, the cathedral became part of the established church, later known as the Church of Ireland. The previous building was constructed in the 1730s, but was widely regarded as plain and featureless. The cathedral's demolition and rebuild was commissioned in the mid-19th century by an Anglican church intent on strengthening its hand after the reforms of penal law. Work began in 1863, and resulted in the first major commissioned project for the Victorian architect William Burges, who designed most of the cathedral's architecture, sculpture, stained glass, mosaics and interior furniture. Saint Fin Barre's foundation stone was laid in 1865. The cathedral was consecrated in 1870 and the limestone spires completed by October 1879. Saint Fin Barre's is mostly built from local stone sourced from Little Island and Fermoy. The exterior is capped by three spires: two on the west front and one above the nave, at the crossing with the transept. Many of the external sculptures, including the gargoyles, were modelled by Thomas Nicholls. The entrances contain figures of over a dozen biblical characters, surmounted by a tympanum showing a Resurrection scene.

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Fota Wildlife Park

Fota Wildlife Park is a 100-acre (40 ha) wildlife park located on Fota Island, near Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland. Opened in 1983, it is an independently funded, not-for-profit charity that is one of the leading tourism, wildlife and conservation attractions in Ireland. The park had an attendance of 455,559 visitors in 2017, making it the eleventh most popular paid attraction in Ireland for that year. The park is home to nearly 30 mammal and 50 bird species. Some of the animals roam freely with the visitors, such as the ring-tailed lemurs and wallabies, while larger animals, including the giraffe and bison, live in paddocks with barriers that are intended to be unobtrusive for visitors to view the animals in a more natural environment. Fota Wildlife Park also has red pandas, tapirs, siamang gibbons and other types of animals.

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Ballycrovane Ogham Stone

Ballycrovane Ogham Stone (CIIC 66) is an ogham stone and National Monument located in County Cork, Ireland.

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The Moving Statue

The moving statues (Irish: Bogadh na nDealbh) phenomenon occurred during the summer of 1985 in Ireland, where, in several different parts of the country, statues of the Virgin Mary were reported to move spontaneously. In Ballinspittle, County Cork, in July 1985, an observer claimed to have seen a roadside statue of the Virgin Mary move spontaneously. Similar occurrences were reported shortly afterward in Mount Melleray, County Waterford, and at around 30 other locations around the country. They were not all Marian apparitions. Some involved other divine figures and/or saints who appeared in stains on church walls etc. Thousands gathered at many of the sites out of curiosity or to gaze in wonder and to pray. Up to 100,000 were said to have visited the Ballinspittle site alone. The Catholic Church remained reticent or highly skeptical and a bishop declared the whole phenomenon 'an illusion'. The Ballinspittle statue was damaged by a gang of hammer-wielding Pentecostal protesters against idolatry (or Mariolatry), led by Robert Draper, who was found guilty of smashing other statues and went on to serve six months in prison, but the Ballinspittle statue was repaired. In 2002 the BBC planned a documentary on the phenomenon. A team of psychologists based in University College, Cork (UCC), recorded 31 apparition sites and explained the visions as being optical illusions caused by staring at objects in the evening twilight. Others have argued that the moving statues and other extraordinary international phenomenon like the "flying-saucer" religions and many other new religious and occult movements are best explained as responses to an existential angst that was exacerbated by the Cold War and other sources of social stress but with ultimate origins in cultural or religious norms, family dynamics, and personal psychology. Anthropologist Peter Mulholland argues that the continuing role of Marian apparitions in Irish popular culture is a reflection of psychological insecurity stemming largely from adverse childhood experiences and a concatenation of historical, cultural, political, religious and sociological factors. Moving statues have also been reported in Poland, another devout Catholic country.

GeneralHuguenot Graveyard

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Huguenot Graveyard

The Huguenot Cemetery was created between 1710 and 1733 as a cemetery for the Huguenot inhabitants in the city of Cork in Ireland. It is believed to be one of the last two surviving Huguenot graveyards in western Europe. The cemetery is recorded in the Record of Monuments and Places and included in an Architectural Conservation Area designated by Cork City Council.

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Jameson Distillery Midleton

The Old Midleton Distillery, also known as the Jameson Experience, Midleton, is a former Irish whiskey distillery that was turned into a museum and visitor centre located in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland. Set over 15 acres, since opening as a visitor's centre in 1992, the old distillery has received approximately 100,000 guests per year, receiving 125,000 in 2015. The Old Midleton Distillery in which the Jameson Experience is located began life as a woollen mill, before being converted to a military barracks and subsequently a distillery in 1825. The distillery operated until 1975, when a new distillery was constructed alongside it to house the consolidated operations of three former whiskey-making rivals, John Jameson & Son, John Powers & Son, and Cork Distilleries Company (owners of the Midlelton Distillery), who had come together to form Irish Distillers in 1966. It now houses a visitor centre, a restaurant, and a gift shop.