Cobh and Spike Island

Harbour Town In Cork Harbour, The Titanic'S Last Port Of Call (1912) And The Departure Point For Millions Of Emigrants, With St Colman'S Cathedral And Ferries To The Star Fort And Prison On Spike Island · Cobh, Cork

Cobh (say Cove) is a steep harbour town on Great Island in Cork Harbour, and for more than a century it was the last piece of Ireland that millions of emigrants saw. Called Queenstown from 1849 until the 1920s, it was the Titanic's final port of call in April 1912, the place where survivors and victims of the Lusitania were brought ashore in 1915, and the port from which Annie Moore sailed to become the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island in 1892. Terraces of painted houses climb from the waterfront to St Colman's Cathedral, whose spire and carillon dominate the town. A short ferry ride away, Spike Island holds Fort Mitchel, a vast star fort that served as a convict prison in the Famine years and again until 2004, and is often sold as the Alcatraz of Ireland. People come for the emigration and Titanic stories, the island tour and the train ride along the harbour from Cork. The honest caveats: the streets are very steep, the Titanic sites are small, and cruise-ship days pack the waterfront.

Cobh town on Great Island, Cork Harbour, about 25 minutes by train from Cork city; Spike Island ferries from Kennedy Pier, Cobh, Cork, Ireland

A town open all year. The Titanic Experience runs timed guided tours daily, with shorter winter hours (confirm). The Cobh Heritage Centre in the old railway station opens daily in season with reduced winter days (confirm). Spike Island ferries leave Kennedy Pier daily from roughly May to September, at weekends and school holidays in February-April and October-November, and for pre-booked groups only in December-January; the visit is a fixed guided package of about 3.5 hours - book online ahead in summer. Trains from Cork Kent take about 25 minutes, roughly every 30 minutes.

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