Walking Tour of Cork, Ireland.

A few weeks ago it was a beautiful winter day and a Saturday.... so Stan and I thought it would be fun to take a walking tour of Cork. There's an app on Stan's phone that organized this three mile walk around Cork. We parked the car and began our walk up the long hill to the Church of St. Anne. This church is located in the Shandon district of Cork on top of a large hill overlooking the River Lee. St. Anne's church has beautiful bells in its large bell tower that ring beautifully. 

 Here we are climbing the stairs up to the bell tower and eventually we pass it to the top where you get a beautiful view of the city.

We all had to wear gear to protect our ears in case there was another visitor ringing the bells as we passed through them.

 Here are some great views of CORK. It was a fantastic day, blue skies and warm, temperate weather for late December!

Here's a good photo of the tall tower of St. Anne's church.

Here I am with William below the Bells. There are instructions or bell music there so you can follow along pulling the different strings and play the music. It's very nice.

From St. Anne's Church we walked some distance to UCC. University College Cork. It's a beautiful campus in the heart of Cork.

University College Cork

Next we walked to St. Finn Barre's Cathedral, founded in 606 AD.

"Saint Fin Barre

Legend has it that St. Fin Barre was the son of Amergin, whose tribe was descended from Eochaidh Muidmheadoin, brother of the king of Munster. Amergin settled in the territory of Muskerry, in the county of Cork, where he obtained an inheritance and land at a place called Achaidh Durbchon, near the spot afterwards known as Gougane Barra, at the sources of the river Lee. He was chief smith to Tighernach, king of the Hy Eachach of Munster, and he married a young woman of the king’s household. As this was in defiance of the king’s wishes, the couple was summoned before him and he sentenced them to be burned alive. A storm of thunder and lightning, with heavy rain, prevented the decree from being carried out. This was regarded as a divine interposition and they were set free.

A child was born from this union and they returned to Gougane Barra, where the boy was baptised Luan, or Lochan. When he was seven years old three clerics of Munster, returning from a pilgrimage to Leinster, happened to stop at the house of Amergin. They admired the boy for the grace of the Holy Spirit that seemed to them to shine in his face, and were allowed by his parents to take him away to be educated. He studied at a place called Sliabh Muinchill, where, as was usual at the time, he was tonsured and had his name changed. The cleric who cut his hair is said to have observed, “Fair (finn) is the hair (barra) of Luan.”"Let this be his name,” said another, “Barr Finn, or Finn Barr.”

Saint Fin Barre eventually came to the marshes of Cork in 606AD where he founded a monastery with what became a renowned monastic school on the site of the present Cathedral.  Christian worship and learning has continued here ever since.  He died in Cloyne in 623AD and is said to have been buried in the the graveyard somewhere near the east end of the present Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral." http://cathedral.cork.anglican.org/

Afterwards we headed the rest of the way down the hill to the shopping centre of Cork. We got a hot chocolate at Butlers and then found our way to the car.