CHARLES Fort in Kinsale and the Mizen Head signal station at the furthest tip of the county are the top two most popular visitor attractions in West Cork, according to Fáilte Ireland’s recently-published figures.
A total of 96,253 visitors made the trip to Charles Fort in 2023, with 77,178 visiting Mizen Head, making them the eighth and 10th most popular attractions in Cork county.
Fáilte Ireland last week published the results of its annual survey of attendance at Ireland’s visitor attractions for 2023. Visitor levels in 2023 were 95% of 2019’s overall figure but higher than 2022 (85%), based on attractions that provided visitor figures every year since 2019.
The third most popular attraction in West Cork, according to its visitor numbers, was Glengarriff’s Garinish Island (67,630), followed by Allihies Mine Museum (26,500), Bantry House (21,580), Michael Collins House Clonakilty (20,000), Skibbereen Heritage Centre (14,860), the Old Head Signal Station (13,248), the Toy Solider Factory Kilnamartyra (6,700), Clon Distillery (6,018), Dún na Séad Castle Baltimore (5,000); Kinsale Mead (3,600), Michael Collins Museum Castleview (3,177), Bamboo Park Glengarriff (2,698), Kilmurry Independence Museum (1,923) and the West Cork Heritage Centre in Bandon (500).
The figures showed that the share of international visitors attending visitor attractions continued to grow post-pandemic, reaching 57% in 2023. Dublin hosted the greatest share of international visitors, at 68%.
Despite the increase in online booking capabilities, walk-up visitors remained the most common type of visitor for all attraction types in 2023, averaging 65%.
Participation in the survey is voluntary and therefore this is not a complete record of all visitor attractions open in Ireland in 2023, Fáilte Ireland said.
