Places to Visit

Welcome to Sheep’s Head home to less than a thousand people, which remains one of the most unspoiled areas in Ireland, if not in Europe. Many writers have written of the special quality and beauty of the landscape on the Sheep’s Head Peninsula.

Skibbereen Heritage Centre is located in the beautifully restored Old Gasworks building and features two main exhibitions. The Great Famine Exhibition commemorates this period of Irish history using the latest in multimedia technology. Skibbereen was one of the worst affected areas in Ireland, as testified by the mass graves, where almost 10,000 people are buried. The Lough Hyne Visitor Centre reveals the unique nature of this marine lake, Ireland's first Marine Nature Reserve.

The visitor is invited to take a one hour tour of the Old Midleton Distillery, the home of Jameson Irish whiskey. The guided tour begins with an audio visual presentation (available in 7 languages) followed by a walk through the beautifully restored industrial complex, unique within Ireland and Britain.

Kinsale Pottery and Arts Centre provides a full range of arts, crafts, literary and drama courses for adults and children throughout the year. These include weekly term time classes in pottery, drawing and painting and creative writing (adults) and art and creative writing (children) plus weekend craft courses in stained glass, glass fusing, life drawing and painting, mosaic-making, film animation, photography, introduction to pottery, book making and binding and creative writing plus summer art camps for children and various summer schools for adults.

Skibbereen Heritage Centre is located in the beautifully restored Old Gasworks building and features two main exhibitions. The Great Famine Exhibition commemorates this period of Irish history using the latest in multimedia technology. Skibbereen was one of the worst affected areas in Ireland, as testified by the mass graves, where almost 10,000 people are buried.

Blarney Castle was built nearly six hundred years ago by one of Ireland’s greatest chieftains, Cormac MacCarthy, and has been attracting attention beyond Munster ever since. Not all of that has been welcome, as Good Queen Bess and Oliver Cromwell could testify. But over the last few hundred years, millions have flocked to Blarney, making it a world landmark and one of Ireland’s greatest treasures.