Day Trip to Cobh / Elizabeth Fort & Blackrock Castle
Day 1 in Ireland | Visiting Cobh, County Cork | Touring Fort Elizabeth & Blackrock Castle in Cork | July 2025
Our first full day in Ireland started off strong with possibly the best thing to happen to us all summer: Because of Curtis’ Marriott status, we got to enjoy the breakfast at our hotel for free, and as typical for European hotel breakfasts, it was the best continental breakfast we’ve ever had! We could get the traditional Irish breakfast (sausage, beans, eggs), all sorts of meats and cheeses, fruits and vegetables, and as many breads and pastries as our hearts desired! It truly was the best way to start our days and we looked forward to each morning because of it. It also helped us to save money on lunch, because we’d always grab a little extra to carry us through the days.
For our first day here, we were still a little jet lagged and figuring out how to get around, so we started off with an easier little day trip. Our goal for our time in Cork was to use public transport as much as we could to get outside the city and visit smaller towns, historic sites, and nature areas. The first small town that we had our eyes on was Cobh. It was only a half hour away on a commuter train that left every half hour and accepted the Leap card, meaning we saved a bit on our tickets and we didn’t have to book anything in advance. After breakfast, we grabbed the things we needed for half a day and walked over to the train station.
Once we were in Cobh, we set off on foot, ready to experience the town. We followed the sidewalk into the main part of town, stopped in a visitor center to pick up a map, then just kept on wandering. One of the things Cobh is best known for is being the last place where the Titanic made port before setting sail across the Atlantic. So naturally, there is a museum here in honor of that. This is also where you can take a ferry over to Spike Island, which is sort of like an Irish Alcatraz and we heard that the tour is very highly rated. But being on a budget and not exactly awake enough to take in a lot of information, we chose not to visit either of these and instead made up our own little walking tour.
When you are looking at Cobh, either from out on the water or from within the town, one of the most prominent sites that grabs your attention is St. Colman’s Cathedral. We made our way up a steep road to a park that offers one of the most picturesque views in the town: a row of identical colorful houses, with the cathedral in the background. This is also where Curtis found his first Irish letterbox. After that, we made our way over to the cathedral, admiring the views of the town from the higher streets. The cathedral was open and free to visit, so we both went inside to look around — and in hindsight, we’re very glad we did, because most of the others we came across on this trip were not open or free!
Next, we continued walking through the town, making our way back down to the water. We found a way to get down to the sea, and then walked along the pebbly beach, looking for cool rocks or shells. We didn’t find many here (at least none we felt good about taking as a souvenir) but we did see lots of jellyfish. We continued walking along the waterfront, and after visiting a memorial park for the Titanic, we decided to make our way back to Cork. I was really struggling to stay awake at this point, and fought fatigue the whole train ride back. You simply can’t fall asleep while on a train in Ireland, you’ll miss seeing the castles along the way!
After a short stop back at the hotel to regroup, we set off on a little walking tour around Cork. Our main agenda was to visit Elizabeth Fort, South of the River Lee. The fort is free to visit and has a self-guided walking tour with lots of information spread around. We got to walk up on the walls and take in the city, and walk through a museum on the inside. The Fort itself was built in the early 1600’s to defend the town of Cork. An earlier fort on the same site was used during the conquest of Ireland, and the current structure was a Jacobite (Catholic) stronghold during the Williamite Wars at the end of the 17th century, but after that the fort was slowly absorbed by the town and served more civil services than martial.
While walking through the fort, it was impossible to ignore the giant cathedral right next door, so after we were finished we wandered over there. It wasn’t open to the public (at least at that time) but we still enjoyed admiring all of the details on the outside of the building, and walking through the green space surrounding it. It was late afternoon at this point, and though it was a little tempting to call it a night, we decided we needed to push ourselves to stay awake longer. And so we walked to a bus stop, and rode a city bus out to Blackrock Castle.
When we arrived at the castle, we paid a small fee and began our self-guided tour through the museum. This was when we started to learn that since there are so many castles in Ireland, it isn’t enough to simply have a castle be an attraction just because it’s a castle. If it isn’t one of the more popular ones like the Blarney or Bunratty Castles, chances are it serves more than one purpose. This one also happened to be an observatory, and so the museum inside it was focused on astronomy. We enjoyed touring the museum, and then walked up the two towers to find different lookouts. This castle predates Fort Elizabeth by half a century and was used to defend the river, but it has also seen some heavy renovations. Most of the tall towers that we enjoyed were added in the mid-1800’s – and since castles were no longer military targets, those changes were definitely all for *the aesthetic*.
We took the bus back into town, and decided to end our day with a nicer meal: fish and chips from Keily’s. The fish was incredible and everything we were hoping it would be! Once we were finished, we made our way back to the hotel where we finally listened to our bodies telling us to go to sleep. Thankfully today was the worst of the jet lag we experienced!
