Dating from the Middle Ages, the Red Abbey is a National Monument and the oldest structure in Cork City. The square tower was once part of an Augustinian abbey.
The tower of the Red Abbey provides a link to Cork’s medieval past, as it is the city’s only structure remaining from that time period. Considered a National Monument, it stands on the site of an Augustinian abbey thought to have been founded in the 13th or 14th century.
The friars remained through the Reformation, until 1641, but by the early 18th century, the space was being used as a sugar refinery. A fire in 1799 destroyed much of the abbey.
