Blarney is the one most people book first, and it earns the time: Cormac Láidir MacCarthy’s tower house of 1446, the stone set in the battlements and kissed leaning backwards, then the Poison Garden, the Rock Close and a 22-acre lake. Several more sit within a short run of the city. Blackrock Castle, built in 1582 to watch the mouth of Cork Harbour, is now MTU’s observatory, planetarium shows and all; Barryscourt at Carrigtwohill reopened in 2025 after a decade of OPW restoration and is free, with the upper floors by guided tour only; Belvelly, on the road out to Cobh, is a private house you can only photograph.
North Cork holds a second group, along the Blackwater and up into Duhallow. Kanturk Castle is the fortified mansion the English Privy Council halted in 1618, never roofed and free to walk up to; Mallow Castle’s parkland, grazed by white fallow deer, is open while the buildings are closed for conservation; Liscarroll sets one of Ireland’s largest castle ruins beside a donkey sanctuary a few minutes’ walk away.
West and south, the drives get longer. Castle Donovan rises from a crag above the River Ilen, six km north of Drimoleague, free and unguided, though only the ground floor is open. At the Old Head of Kinsale, Milo de Courcy’s wall of 1223 still seals the neck of the headland, with the promontory beyond now a private golf links.
A 1446 MacCarthy tower house whose battlement stone gave English a word, with a Poison Garden, Rock Close and lake worth a whole morning.
Seat of the Barry family for two centuries, reopened in 2025 after a decade of OPW conservation, free to enter with guided access upstairs.
A 1582 harbour fort turned university observatory, where one ticket covers the planetarium, the space exhibitions and a self-guided tour of the 16th-century castle.
28 of 29 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Blarney, cork
Cormac Láidir MacCarthy built the tower house in 1446, and the stone set in its battlements – kissed leaning backwards over a sheer drop – gave English the word ‘blarney’. Book online and go early: the stone queue builds through summer mornings, and the Poison Garden, Rock Close and 22-acre lake deserve the extra hours.
Carrigtwohill, cork
Barryscourt was the main seat of the Barry family for two centuries, and the cannonball scars of a 1645 siege still pock the wall above its door. A decade-long OPW restoration reopened the tower house in 2025; admission is free, and the upper floors are yours by guided tour only.
Great Island, cork
Belvelly guards the narrowest crossing in Cork Harbour, where a single 1803 bridge links Great Island to Fota Island. Its three landmarks – a medieval tower house, a Napoleonic Martello tower and a red-brick schoolhouse – are all private homes now, so the visit is a roadside one: photographs, the bridge view and a short stop on the way to Cobh.
Blackrock, cork
Built in 1582 to guard Cork Harbour, Blackrock Castle is now the MTU Blackrock Castle Observatory. A general ticket covers the space exhibitions, planetarium shows and a self-guided tour of the 16th-century castle, on a rocky point above the River Lee.
south of Mallow, cork
Castle Barrett is the standing remnant of a medieval stronghold on a hill above the River Clyda, a few kilometres south of Mallow. The north and east walls of its tower house still rise four storeys; the rest is fragments and a deep earthen fosse. It sits on private farmland, so the best views are from the road, and it makes a natural halt on the Avondhu Way.
Castledonovan, cork
Castle Donovan rises from a rocky crag above the River Ilen, six km north of Drimoleague – a free, unguided O’Donovan tower house with a corner blown out by Cromwellian gunpowder in the 1640s. You can step into the ground floor and see the spiral stair, but the upper storeys aren’t open, so it’s a short stop best paired with a valley walk.
Rosscarbery, cork
Castle Salem is a 15th-century tower house near Rosscarbery, built around 1470 as Benduff and later renamed by the Quaker William Morris, whose friend William Penn stayed here repeatedly in 1670. The Daly family have farmed it since 1895 and still live in it; the owner, Peter Daly, shows visitors round the keep and the later house for a donation. There are no set hours, so ring ahead.
Old Head of Kinsale, cork
De Courcy Castle is the long Norman wall and gate-tower that seals the neck of the Old Head of Kinsale, built around 1223 by Milo de Courcy. In 1261 he killed Fineen MacCarthy Mór, starting a feud that ran for 240 years; the English took the castle in 1600. The headland beyond is now a private golf links, so the ruin is seen from the landward side.
Dunmanus Bay, cork
Dunmanus Castle stands on a rock outcrop above Dunmanus Bay, built around 1430 by the O'Mahonys as one of a dozen tower houses they held along the West Cork coast. It is the best preserved of them. The ground floor is open to anyone who pulls into the lay-by; the upper floors are unsafe and closed.
Kanturk, cork
Work on Kanturk Castle stopped around 1618 when the English Privy Council decided the fortified mansion was too large for a subject. Its builder is said to have scattered the blue glass tiles meant to roof it, and the great roofless shell still stands, free to wander. The market town around it sits where the Allow and Dalua rivers meet in Duhallow.
Kanturk, cork
Kanturk Castle is a fortified mansion that was never finished. Begun for MacDonagh MacCarthy, Lord of Duhallow, around 1600, its four five-storey corner towers were rising when the English Privy Council ordered the work stopped in 1618, fearing too strong a stronghold. It was never roofed, and today it stands as a free, view-from-outside National Monument above the Duhallow farmland.
Kilbolane Hill, cork
Two circular towers and a moat are all that survive of Kilbolane Castle, one of a line of Norman castles built to hold the frontier against the Gaelic clans of the west. It stands on a hill above Milford in north Cork, an unguided National Monument you view from the roadside – the OPW keeps it locked. Cromwell's army finished it in 1642.
Buttevant, cork
Kilcolman Castle is the weathered tower house where Edmund Spenser drafted much of The Faerie Queene before O'Neill's forces burned it in 1598. It stands on private land and can't be entered, but the adjoining Kilcolman Bog nature reserve gives a distant view of the ruin and good winter wildfowl watching.
Liscarroll, cork
Liscarroll pairs two unlikely neighbours: one of Ireland's largest castle ruins, a late-13th-century Barry stronghold, and a free donkey sanctuary a few minutes' walk away. Add an early-medieval ringfort and a stretch of the Ballyhoura Way, and it makes an easy afternoon in North Cork.
Macroom, cork
Macroom's castle gates and riverside demesne anchor a working market town on the River Sullane, halfway between Cork city and Killarney. Just east lies the Gearagh, a ghostly half-submerged alluvial oak forest that is a nature reserve and Ramsar site, and the best single reason to stop.
Macroom, cork
What's left of Macroom Castle is a mock-medieval gatehouse on the town square, cannons, turrets and all, and a ruined tower above the River Sullane. The residential block was demolished in 1967; the rest is a free public park, open dawn to dusk, in the middle of the market town.
Mallow, cork
Mallow Castle is three buildings from three centuries on the River Blackwater: a medieval ruin, a rare 16th-century fortified house and a Victorian mansion. The parkland is free and open, grazed by white fallow deer descended from a pair given by Queen Elizabeth I. The buildings are closed for conservation works for now, so it's a grounds-and-exterior visit.
Old Head of Kinsale, cork
Milo de Courcy built his castle in 1223 across the narrowest point of the Old Head of Kinsale, and the ruin still marks the neck of the headland – viewable from the road, though most of the promontory is private golf land. The 6 km loop from Garylucas Beach car park passes the castle, the 1853 lighthouse and the free Lusitania Museum, 11 miles from where the liner sank in 1915.
Castlelands, cork
In autumn 1600 Spanish forces held Ringrone Castle in the run-up to the Battle of Kinsale; English cannon took it and left it in ruins. What survives today is a single wall fragment, four storeys high, standing in a field behind Castlelands cemetery above the River Bandon.
Mizen Peninsula, cork
Three stone towers, built in 1207, stand across a narrow neck of land between an Atlantic cliff and a still freshwater lake at the tip of the Mizen Peninsula. Reaching them means a 2.3 km walk across a working sheep farm, past an honesty box – no ticket office, no crowds.
Carrigaline, cork
Carrigtwohill, cork
Sherkin Island, cork
Baltimore, cork
Beara Peninsula, cork
cork
Kilcaskan, cork
Mitchelstown, cork
North Main Street, cork
← All things to do in County Cork
Book tours & tickets
We may earn a commission if you book through this link, at no extra cost to you.
Book tours, skip-the-line tickets and day trips with GetYourGuide. Free cancellation on most experiences.
See tours & tickets in County Cork →