![]() ![]() Used as an Island prison, fortress, monastery and home, today visitors can meet captains and convicts and sinners and saints as you uncover 1300 years of Irish history. The island has a dark and fascinating past. Spike Island tours operate within a 5 minute walk of West Beach House. Spike Island stands tall in Corks natural harbour just 15 minutes ferry ride from the beautiful heritage town of Cobh in County Cork. Allow at least 20 minutes to park and walk to the ferry. Parking is recommended at the Five Foot Way (15 minute walk) or Cobh Cathderal car park (15 minute walk). Heritage town Cobh is just 24 minutes by train or 25 minutes by car from Cork city centre. It was voted ‘Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction” at the World Travel awards in 2017. Our nearest rum running island is only a short drive from our coastal location in Waterford, in the next-door county of Cork. Spike Island is reached by ferry from Kennedy pier, Cobh. ![]() It is this vivid combination of a penal history to rival Alcatraz and a long political history to match Robben Island (there is evidence that Cromwell’s troops held Royalist prisoners on Spike as early as the 1650s) that have made Spike Island a popular visitor attraction since it opened in the summer of 2016. Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin said store owners have 'never seen retail crime at these levels'. It was the largest prison in the world at the time and there has never been a larger prison in Ireland or Britain before or since. Today the island is dominated by the 200 year old Fort Mitchel, the star shaped Fortress which became a prison holding over 2,300 prisoners. The island's rich history has included monks and monasteries, rioters and redcoats, captains and convicts and sinners and saints. In the last 1,300 years Spike Island has been host to a 7th century Monastery, a 24 acre Fortress, the largest Victorian convict depot in the world and centuries of island homes. Spike Island Tours explore fortress spike. In the last 1300 years Spike Island has been host to a 6th century Monastery, a 24 acre Fortress, the largest convict depot in the world in Victorian times and. ![]()
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