Be sure to read the Special Notes further down this page for important requirements and restriction.

Depart the pier on foot accompanied by your Spike Island guide and board your boat to Spike Island. Extending to 104 acres, Spike Island commands a strategic position within the sheltered mouth of the lower reaches of Cork Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in the world. For centuries people have used the island for a wealth of different reasons. Monasteries on islands were often hermitages and places of pilgrimage that played an important role in Early Christian Ireland, and written evidence suggests that, in the seventh century, Saint Mochuda founded a monastic settlement on Spike Island with 20 brothers.

Cork Harbour has been vital to the development of overseas trade and commerce since Viking times, but not all of the trade on Spike was legal. During the eighteenth century the rugged Spike Island shoreline was a hiding place for smugglers. In order to protect the harbour, a series of artillery fortifications were built at strategic locations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the largest of which is on Spike Island. Unlike medieval castles, these were built with a low profile to absorb cannon fire and had the characteristic starshaped plan with corner bastions. Many memorabilia from this time can be found on display on the Island.

In 1847 Spike Island became a convict depot. By 1850 over 2,000 convicts were detained on Spike Island and in 1883 the last of the prisoners were relocated to prisons on the mainland. Almost a century later however, the island became a prison again. Between 1985 and 2004 the fort was used to hold young offenders – mainly 'joyriders' convicted of stealing and recklessly driving cars.

Today it plays host to stories and memories that have created such an interesting history of the Island and surrounds. Enjoy a guided tour of the key features of the Island before taking time to explore independently. Following your guided tour, you will be escorted to the off limits Captains Bar where 200 years of forts commanders toasted the end of another week with their soldiers or prison officers. Follow in their footsteps and raise a toast with the Spike Island Rum (not available to the general public).

Enjoy some free time to explore the island at your leisure before rejoining your boat for your return journey to Cobh where you can make your way independently back to your awaiting ship or explore Cobh Town.