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UPTON

CO. CORK · IE

Upton
Garraí Thancaird, Co. Cork

The West Cork
STOP 06 / 06

Garraí Thancaird · Co. Cork

A wooded hamlet between Innishannon and Bandon, remembered for a 1921 train ambush and the ballad it left behind.

Upton is small. A scatter of houses in the woods three kilometres northwest of Innishannon, off the old Cork to Bandon road in West Cork. There is one pub, a Rosminian religious house, and the line of a railway that closed in 1961. That is the village. It has no main street to speak of and asks nothing of a passing visitor except that they slow down on the bends.

The Irish name is Garraí Thancaird - anglicised once as Garryhancard, which tells you the place is older than the few houses you can see. For most of the last century the name that travelled furthest was attached to the railway station that once sat on the Cork, Bandon and South Coast line. It is the station, and what happened there one February morning, that put Upton into song.

Come here, if you come at all, for the heritage and the quiet. Innishannon and its river are a few minutes south, Bandon is a market town to the west, and Crossbarry - where the same chapter of history ran on a few weeks later - is just up the road. Upton itself is a footnote with a long memory.

Population

A hamlet - a few dozen houses

Pubs

1and counting

Coords

51.7877° N, 8.6719° W

01 / 06

The pubs.

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

The Railway Bar

The one pub, named for the line that is gone

Village pub

Named for the railway that closed in 1961. It is the social centre of a hamlet that does not have much else, and that is the whole point of it. A local bar for local people. Do not expect a gastropub - expect a pint and, if you are lucky, someone who can tell you which field the station stood in.

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

15 February 1921

The Upton train ambush

On the morning of 15 February 1921, during the War of Independence, a flying column of the 3rd Cork Brigade of the IRA, thirteen strong and led by Charlie Hurley, took up position at Upton and Innishannon railway station to attack a train carrying British soldiers from Cork to Bandon. The plan depended on scouts aboard the train signalling the strength of the military. The scouts never arrived. The ambushers, unaware they faced around five hundred soldiers of the Essex Regiment mixed through the carriages with ordinary passengers, opened fire. The fight lasted about ten minutes and went badly. Three volunteers were killed - Patrick O'Sullivan, John Phelan and Falvey - and at least six civilian passengers died in the crossfire, with many more wounded. It was the start of what Tom Barry called twelve dark days for the brigade. Hurley himself was killed weeks later at Crossbarry.

The ballad

The Lonely Woods of Upton

The ambush left a ballad behind it - The Lonely Woods of Upton - which is how a great many people who have never been to West Cork know the name of this hamlet at all. It is a slow, mournful song, and it is the reason Upton's name outlasted its railway station. If you grew up with Irish ballads you may know the tune before you know where the place is.

The Rosminians, since 1860

St Patrick's, Upton

East of the village, on a property once known as Deanesfort, the Rosminians - the Institute of Charity, an order founded in Italy in 1828 - took over a new reformatory in 1860. It became St Patrick's Industrial School and ran, like too many such institutions, into the 1960s. The Rosminian community is still here, and Upton with its St Patrick's house remains part of the Innishannon and Knockavilla parish. The grounds are a religious community, not a visitor attraction; respect that if you pass.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

The old railway line The Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway ran through here until 1961, and the cutting and the line of it can still be read in the landscape around the old station site. There is no formal greenway here - this is reading the ground, not a waymarked trail - but for anyone interested in the ambush or the lost line it is the walk to take. Wear boots and mind the verges on the narrow roads.

Variabledistance

An hour or sotime

Lanes toward Innishannon The minor roads down toward Innishannon and the Bandon river are quiet and rolling - good for a leg-stretch or a slow cycle. No footpaths, so walk facing the traffic. The reward is at the far end, where the river is.

3 km each waydistance

Under an hourtime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The woods that the ballad named come into leaf. Quiet lanes, soft light, nobody about.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and dry roads make the cycle to Innishannon and the river worthwhile. The hamlet itself stays still.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The best of it - the woods turn, and the place suits a grey, reflective mood. February is when the ambush is marked, but autumn is when it looks like the song.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and wet narrow roads. There is little to do but the pub and the memory. Go on the February anniversary if history is your reason, otherwise wait.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Expecting a village centre

There is no square, no row of shops, no postcard street. Upton is a hamlet - a pub, a religious house, and a place name. If you arrive expecting Kinsale you have come to the wrong corner of Cork. Come for the quiet and the history or do not come.

Looking for the railway station

The line closed in 1961 and the station is gone. You can read the route in the landscape and find the memorial to the ambush, but there is no platform to photograph. Manage the expectation before you turn off the main road.

Treating St Patrick's as a tourist site

It is a working Rosminian community with a hard institutional history behind it, not an attraction. Do not wander the grounds expecting a heritage tour.

Getting there.

By car

Off the minor roads northwest of Innishannon in West Cork, about 3 km from the village and reached on small lanes from the Cork-Bandon road (N71 corridor). Cork city is roughly 30 minutes, Bandon about 15. A car is the only sensible way in.

By bus

There is no useful scheduled service to the hamlet itself. Buses run the Cork-Bandon-West Cork corridor through Innishannon nearby; from there it is a short drive or a long walk. Check Local Link for rural Cork routes.

By train

None. The line through Upton closed in 1961 and the nearest railway is at Cork city (Kent Station), then a hire car.