Spike Island After Dark’s are back! Our guides give you the dark history of our prison island that we cannot tell to day tours.
Your tour begins with a ferry ride across Cork harbour as the sun sets, before our guides meet you on the island and walk you past abandoned villages and former homes. You’ll hear the harrowing history and spooky stories passed down by our former island residents.
Then on we go to Fortress Spike, the Fortress built to defend an empire that became the largest prison in the world in the 1850’s. Over 2,300 inmates were crammed into the Fort on any one day, during the harsh famine years. There has never been a bigger prison in Britain or Ireland, before or since. The death rate peaked at 10%, which testifies to the harshness of the conditions. Some 1,300 convicts remain in mass graves on the island, victims of a cruel time.
There are no forced scares or actors, just the all too true stories from a fearsome prison and a unique corner of ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’.
Boat departs Cobh at 4pm and returns from Spike Island at approx 8pm