Our 5 Top Picks for Cork Heritage Open Day
Cork Heritage open day will be happening again this summer and will be bigger than ever with over 35 buildings taking part, and an audience reach of over 23,000 people! This open day involves local Cork building owners opening their doors for one day only on a voluntary basis to give the public a glimpse into Corks amazing and unique built heritage that they wouldn’t normally have access to.
Things will start off early Saturday morning where you can take tours of old Cork buildings and listen to talks from the building owners, there are some maps around the city with planned walking routes so that you can make the most of your time and see as much as possible. If you have a particular theme of history you’d like to see, the open-day’s website has digital maps of marked locations in each one which you can access by clicking here
There are so many options that you might find yourself spoiled for choice even with maps and routes, so we’ve put together a list of our top 5 recs of the most interesting places to visit in our opinion.
1. Guided tour of Firkin Crane
The Firkin Crane is the home of Dance in Cork City and is also a heritage building sitting at the foot of the Shandon bells in one of the oldest areas of the city. The building was originally part of the Butter Market that opened in 1955.
After the Butter Market closed it spent years lying vacant until it was bought by the then-director of the Irish National Ballet, turning it into the dance facility it is to this day. You can start your day off by taking a tour of this historic building and learning its history at 11 am, book by clicking here.
2. Heineken Ireland Guided tours of Murphys Brewery
Murphys Brewery was founded in Cork in 1856 by one of Corks merchant prince families, the Murphy’s with the grounds of an 18th century foundling hospital on Leitrim street and has an amazing long standing history in Cork that you can learn about on guided tours between 11am-12pm. You’ll have to be quick about getting there from the Firkin Crane, but it’s totally worth it to see the inside of a building that cant normally be accessed by the public so steeped in Corks rich history. Here is the location of the brewery on google maps.
3. Military Museum Collins Barracks
Collins Barracks Museum is in the old guard room inside the main entrance gate to Collins Barracks. The museum has 3 themes you can explore: The history of the barracks, Michael Collins and Peacekeeping and the building itself is an amazing example of Georgian architecture.
There will be a talk at both 11 am and 12.30pm in the museum by the historian there and we would highly recommend it as we have sent a few of our Spanish Military students there in the past and they said it was one of the highlights of their trip! You can find the location of the museum on google maps by clicking here.
4. National Sculpture Factory
The National Sculpture Factory is an artist’s resource facility where local artists are working on many creative projects at any one time. It’s only 34 years old but makes for an equally exciting visit as some of the older buildings as you can visit some of the artist’s workspaces, meet the artists and learn more about the creative process directly from the source.
Guided tours of the building will take place every half four 12pm, through 3 pm, leaving you plenty of time to grab brunch between this and Collins Barracks tour. You can find the factory on google maps by clicking here
5. Behind-The-Scenes Tour of The Everyman
The Everyman was built all the way back in 1840 if you can believe it as houses originally and was then repurposed and re-opened by Cork’s historic Dan Lowry as the “Cork Palace of Varieties” in 1897. It’s been through changes and renovations over the years, and even operated as a cinema for a while but remains today one of the busiest bestselling theatres in Ireland that has seen acts like Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy in it’s day.
If you want to dig deeper into this building’s history with Cork you can do a guided tour as 2 pm after your tour of the National Sculpture Factory, book by calling +353 21 450 1673 and find it on google maps by clicking here.
That’s it from us this week, if you do head out to the open day and take pics enjoying a bit of Corks heritage and culture don’t forget to show us here in CEC by tagging us on the socials @CorkEnglishCollege or using the hashtag #CorkEnglishCollege.
Enjoy the day!