Cork City

Cork

With the youth vibe of a university town, the confidence of cultural cornerstone, the pace of a modern metropolis and the food of, well, gods, the city claims to have it all. It has it for all tastes too: foodies, fashionistas and culture vultures will all find a place here.

Food is an obsession in this part of the world. Browse the aisles of ingredients and local specialties at the English Market, then dine at one of the award-winning restaurants, and you’ll appreciate how one feeds the other. Seafood is abundant along the Cork coast so towns such as Kinsale (a hop, skip, bus journey from the city) are known for fabulous fish dinners.

When it’s not eating, Cork likes to dress up. Shopping, from department stores on Patrick Street to the tiny boutiques of the Huguenot Quarter, is a serious pastime. It’s style of a different sort at the city’s mind-expanding, perception-shattering art spaces. From the dream-like stained glass of Irish artist Harry Clarke at the Crawford Gallery, the come-one-come-all poetry readings at the Triskel Centre, to Madame Butterfly being belted out at the Cork Opera House.

If you fancy an excursion, County Cork is peppered with picture-perfect towns that make postcards look shabby. There’s Cobh with its pretty, multicoloured houses and fascinating maritime heritage. There’s also Bantry, where low tide on the rocks at Bantry Bay provides the most romantic of moments.

Cork has it all, but don’t just listen to us, come see for yourself.