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heritage · Sunday 12 July 2026 · 2:00pm 
CHAS Walking Tour - South Parish: Red Abbey, South Terrace and Union Quay
At Ronnie Herlihy Pocket Park · Junction of Langford Row and Douglas Street, Cork City
At Ronnie Herlihy Pocket Park · Junction of Langford Row and Douglas Street, Cork City
The Cork Historical and Archaeological Society runs one of Ireland’s most respected programmes of local outings, and this July afternoon walk through the South Parish is a chance to see a corner of Cork city that most visitors never reach. Led by Cllr Kieran McCarthy - councillor, archaeologist, and author of 33 books on Cork’s history - the group takes in Red Abbey, South Terrace, and Union Quay at a pace that lets you actually look at things. This is a members-and-guests outing, so you need to either join CHAS or come along with a member; the badge fee is a modest €5 on the day.
The walk centres on Red Abbey, Cork city’s only surviving medieval building - a 20-metre bell tower built from the reddish sandstone that gives it its name. The tower is all that remains of a 14th-century Augustinian priory founded by the De Courcey family, dissolved in 1541, and later used by the Duke of Marlborough as a vantage point during the Siege of Cork in 1690. Standing in the small park around it, you get a rare sense of the medieval city that once stood here.
From there the group moves to South Terrace - a handsome Georgian street with strong literary associations - and along Union Quay, where the river Lee ran wider than it does today and the South Parish’s industrial past is still readable in the buildings. Kieran McCarthy has been writing a weekly local history column in the Cork Independent for over 27 years and has created walking tours across the city; he brings genuine depth to every stop. Comfortable shoes are sensible; this is urban walking on footpaths and the pace is unhurried.
The assembly point is Ronnie Herlihy Pocket Park at the junction of Langford Row and Douglas Street (Eircode T12 N622). That puts you about a 10-minute walk south of the city centre - cross the South Gate Bridge from Grand Parade and head down Douglas Street. Cork Bus Éireann services run along Douglas Street; several routes connect the city centre with the South Parish. If you are driving from outside Cork, the M8 from Dublin and the N22 from Killarney both feed into the southern approaches; street parking near Douglas Street is available but can be patchy on a Sunday afternoon, so public transport is a reasonable option.
The South Parish is close to the English Market, Elizabeth Fort, and Cork’s main shopping streets, making it easy to build a full afternoon around the outing. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to Ronnie Herlihy Pocket Park in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.