When the Shandon Bells ring out over the city, they can be heard for miles around, and it is a great tourist attraction in one of the oldest parts of the city, with narrow cobblestone streets all around. Whenever I had friends visiting, especially people who visited Cork for the first time, Shandon was always one of the first places we would visit, along with Blarney Castle. Besides ringing the bells, we could also climb on the battlements and have a fantastic view of the city. I am not sure if ‘Health and Safety’ allow people to go on the battlements nowadays.
The tower is built with two types of stone – red sandstone from the original Shandon castle which stood nearby, and limestone taken from the derelict Franciscan Abbey which stood on the North Mall. As you approach Shandon, from all directions, you will see both coloured stone of red and white and people say that this is the reason why the Cork sporting colours are red and white.
St Anne’s Graveyard, by the church, is the resting place of the Mahony family (who were the founders of Blarney Woollen Mills) and one of the family was also known as Father Prout. He was a local priest in the area, wrote the song ‘The Bells of Shandon‘ around the 1830s, this song can still be heard occasionally on traditional Irish programmes.
Shandon aka the Four Faced Liar
You will see from the above, that both clocks show different times, one of the reasons that the Clock is called the Four Faced Liar!
Another view of Shandon
