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Understand

thumb|300px|St Fin Barre's Cathedral Corcaigh is an old word for "salt-marsh" — the River Lee broke up into a wetland delta draining into the drowned valley that forms its natural outer harbour. It was tidal and navigable, and Saint Fin Barre founded a monastery on its south bank in 606 AD, the nucleus of a settlement. The Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries and the Anglo-Normans from the 12th were also attracted by this fertile area, and sought to claim the area as their own. It was under King Henry II that Cork was granted city status in 1185.

Medieval Cork was walled for defence and overcrowded, so several river channels became infilled, the basis of what is now St Patrick's Street, South Mall and Grand Parade. The main north and south channels persisted, enclosing the arrow-shaped island of the city centre. Cork's heyday was the 17th century, when sea trade was booming but ships had not yet outgrown the river; later the port moved downstream to Cobh. Prosperous suburbs such as Sunday's Well and Montenotte were built on higher ground on the north bank, while on the south bank a university campus grew up from the 19th century.

The Cork Tourist Information Centre is at 125 St Patrick's St, corner of Lavitt's Quay one block west of the bus station.

See

* right|thumb|300px|St Anne's clock tower holds the Bells of Shandon Red Abbey Tower is off Douglas St just east of Nano Nagle Place. It's one of the few medieval structures remaining in Cork, the bell tower of a 14th-century Augustinian abbey: in 1690 John Churchill (later Duke of Marlborough) used its vantage point to blast away at the Jacobites below. The Augustinians moved out in the 18th century and the abbey became a sugar refinery, then in 1799 a fire destroyed everything except the tower. You can't go inside. Fitzgerald's Park outside the museum is a genteel municipal space on the riverside, laid out in 1902 after Cork hosted an international trade exhibition here. Your only excitement will be from crossing the pedestrian "Shaky Bridge" to Sunday's Well Rd on the north bank.

main campus is beyond the Glucksman on Western Rd. You can stroll around (see [https://www.ucc.ie/en/discover/visit/maps/ college map) and take in the variety of architecture, from the modern extension of the Boole Library to the Honan Chapel, completed in 1917 but got up in Celtic-Gothic style to look much older. is 1 km south of city centre. The Lough, which gives its name to the neighbourhood, is a small freshwater lake fed by springs bubbling out of the limestone; it's barely 1 metre deep. The Lough is ringed by housing but is a wildlife reserve: waterfowl nest on the wooded island at the south end. The lough shore has a firm track of 1.1 km, popular with joggers and dog-walkers. There are…