Things to do
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Charles Fort
A star fort of 1682 on the eastern shore, one of the largest military installations in the country and garrisoned until 1922, with bastions walked in a full circuit above the harbour mouth. The landward side is overlooked by high ground, which is the flaw that cost it in 1690.
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Charles Fort to Kinsale Coastal Walk
The Scilly Walk, a wooded path along the water from the town past Scilly and the Bulman to the fort, about three kilometres each way with the harbour open on one side the whole distance. It is level and passable in ordinary shoes.
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Desmond Castle
A fifteenth-century custom house in the town, used as a prison for French and American captives, where fifty-four prisoners died in a fire in 1747, and later as a workhouse in the Famine. It now holds a small wine museum.
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Garretstown Beach
A west-facing strand under the Old Head with reliable Atlantic surf and a lifeguard in season, ten minutes from the town. It is the nearest proper beach to Cork city and the surf school works from the car park.
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James Fort
The older fort of 1602 on the western bank, built straight after the battle and now an unstaffed ruin reached over the Duggan bridge and up through fields. It is free, open at all hours and looks across at Charles Fort.
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Viewpoint
Old Head
A long headland with a lighthouse at the tip, off which the Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915, with the Signal Tower and a memorial garden open to the public. The point itself is inside a private golf course, so the public route stops at the tower.