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GURRANABRAHER

CO. CORK · IE

Gurranabraher
Garrán na mBráthar, Co. Cork

The Cork City Suburbs
STOP 07 / 07

Garrán na mBráthar · Co. Cork

Cork's north side, built on the hill in the 1930s. Corporation houses, a cross on the skyline, and a community that knows exactly what it is.

Gurranabraher is the north side, and the north side is Cork's other half. Not north Cork, which is a region of farms and market towns. The north side is the city's working half, the side of the river that built the docks and the breweries and the houses on the hill, as against a south side of merchant terraces and private schools. The divide is older than the houses and most Corkonians can place you the moment you say where you are from.

The houses came in the 1930s. Money set aside to rebuild City Hall after the Burning of Cork was redirected in 1932 into a corporation housing scheme on the slopes northwest of the centre, and Gurranabraher was the result - rows of solid two- and three-bed houses climbing the hill above Blackpool and Shandon, built so the city had somewhere decent to put its workers. Social housing, built to last, not slums. The name, Garrán na mBráthar, the grove of the brothers, points back to a monastic holding that was here long before any of it.

The thing you will see first is the cross. The Church of the Ascension, designed by JR Boyd Barrett and built between 1953 and 1955, was the first of the five Rosary churches Bishop Cornelius Lucey put up around Cork in the 1950s, each named for one of the Glorious Mysteries. Its tower carries a steel cross over four metres tall that has been a fixed point on the north-side skyline since the 1960s. From the upper roads of Gurranabraher the view runs right across the valley to the south side, and the cross looks back at you from a dozen streets below.

Do not come here for a postcard. Come if you want to understand the actual city - the half that does not make the tourist maps. Everything is a route through to the centre, ten minutes downhill past the North Cathedral and St Anne's Shandon with its famous bells, both of which sit on the edge of the parish. The community is tight and it has had to be. GAA runs deep, St Vincent's the local club, and the place has produced its share, including the mountaineer Pat Falvey, the first Irishman to climb the Seven Summits. There is no pretence in Gurranabraher and no apology either.

Population

~10,000 (suburb, with Knocknaheeny)

Founded

Corporation housing scheme begun 1932

Coords

51.9036° N, 8.4955° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The name

"Garrán na mBráthar" - the grove of the brothers.

The Irish name means the grove of the brothers, a reference to a long-gone monastic holding on the slope. What grew here instead was one of the first big municipal housing schemes in the State, laid out from 1932 on the hills northwest of the city centre.

Stories & lore → 02 The landmark

The Church of the Ascension and its two-tonne cross on the skyline.

JR Boyd Barrett's cruciform church, built 1953 to 1955, was the first of Bishop Lucey's five Cork Rosary churches. The cross on its tower has been a north-side waymark for sixty years. You can see it from half the city.

Stories & lore → 03 The position

High ground over the Lee, ten minutes down to the centre.

The whole point of the place is the hill. The streets climb away from Shandon and the North Cathedral, and from the top roads you look down over the whole city. The contract is simple: live up here, work down there.

Walks & outings →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Castle Inn

Old-school north-side local

Traditional pub, Shandon Street

On Shandon Street at the historic foot of the suburb. A plain, traditional local of the kind the area runs on - a pint, the racing or the match on the television, and regulars who have been propping the same bar for years. Not a gastropub, not trying to be. The honest version of a north-side pub.

The Homer Bar

Neighbourhood

Local bar, Shandon Street

Another long-standing Shandon Street local on the edge of the parish. Same proposition as its neighbours - a working-area bar that serves the streets above it rather than any passing trade. Useful to know it is there; do not expect a craft list.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Built 1932 onward

The grove of the brothers, then the scheme

Garrán na mBráthar, the grove of the brothers, takes its name from a monastic holding on the slope, long gone before the streets arrived. What replaced it was one of the earliest large municipal housing schemes in the new State. After the Burning of Cork in 1920, money had been earmarked to rebuild City Hall; in 1932 it was diverted into corporation housing, and Gurranabraher was laid out on the hills northwest of the centre. The houses were solid and built to last, and they put a working community on high ground with a view over the whole city. It set the pattern for the north-side estates that followed - Farranree, Churchfield, Knocknaheeny - all of them climbing the same slopes.

JR Boyd Barrett, 1953 to 1955

The Church of the Ascension and its cross

The landmark of the north side is a church. The Church of the Ascension, a cruciform Roman Catholic church designed by James Rupert Boyd Barrett, was built between 1953 and 1955 and was the first of five churches Bishop Cornelius Lucey commissioned across Cork in the 1950s. Known as the Rosary churches, each was named for one of the Glorious Mysteries - the Ascension at Gurranabraher, the Assumption at Ballyphehane, the Resurrection at Farranree, the Holy Spirit at Dennehy's Cross and Our Lady Crowned at Mayfield. The tower at Gurranabraher carries a steel cross over four metres tall and weighing around two tonnes, hoisted into place in the early 1960s. It has been a waymark on the skyline ever since, visible from across the river, and its restoration in recent years was treated locally as a small event.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The hill roads and the city view There is no marked heritage trail here - this is a walk you make yourself. Climb the upper roads of the estate to where the streets level out near the church, and the reward is the view: the whole city laid out below, the spires of the south side across the valley, the Lee somewhere in the middle of it. The Church of the Ascension and its cross anchor the top of the walk. Good shoes and a clear evening.

2-3 km loopdistance

1 hourtime

Down to Shandon and the North Cathedral Walk downhill from the parish toward the historic edge of the suburb at Shandon Street, the North Cathedral (St Mary's, the North Chapel to locals) and St Anne's Shandon with its 18th-century tower and the famous bells you can climb to ring yourself. This is the old quarter the estate sits above, and the descent stitches the 1930s housing back onto the medieval city below it.

2 km returndistance

45 minutestime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Clear spring evenings give the best of the hill - the city view from the upper roads is the whole reason to climb up here, and it wants good light.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the easiest walking weather. The descent to Shandon and the bells of St Anne is a pleasant hour when it is dry.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

GAA season is in full swing and St Vincent's give the place its weekend rhythm. Crisp air and good visibility across the valley.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The hills are steep and exposed, and a wet, dark evening flattens the one thing worth coming for, the view. The church and the pubs keep going regardless.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Coming for "sights"

Gurranabraher is a residential suburb, not an attraction. There is no visitor centre, no heritage trail, no list of things to tick off. It is worth a look only if you want to understand the city's working half - the view, the church and the streets are the whole of it.

Treating it as the same place as the city tourist trail

The North Cathedral, St Anne's Shandon and the Shandon Street pubs sit on the parish's lower edge and are genuinely worth your time. The estate proper, up the hill, is somewhere people live. Walk it with that in mind.

Expecting a night out

The pubs here are neighbourhood locals, not destinations. For an evening with food, music and choice you are ten minutes downhill in the city centre. Have a quiet pint on Shandon Street by all means, then go down.

Getting there.

By car

Northwest of Cork city centre, up the hill above Blackpool and Shandon. Ten minutes down to the centre in normal traffic; the climbing streets are narrow, so park sensibly. From the N20 / city, head for Shandon Street and the North Cathedral and go up.

By bus

Bus Éireann city routes 201 and 202 serve Gurranabraher and the neighbouring north-side estates, running through to the city centre. Frequent through the day on the metro network.

By train

Kent Station, the main Cork rail station, is on the far side of the city centre, roughly fifteen minutes away by bus or car. Mainline services to Dublin Heuston and to Cobh and Midleton.

By air

Cork Airport (ORK) is on the south side of the city, about twenty-five minutes by car through or around the centre.