Being a tourist in your hometown: Pat Fitzpatrick's Cork staycation stroll

From the Blarney Stone to Shandon’s bells, Pat Fitzpatrick visits the sights in Cork, the city he’s called home for 22 years

Sat, 20 May, 2023 - 02:00

Pat Fitzpatrick

Did you know there was a Butter Exchange in Cork, up by Shandon? It was the largest butter market in the world and operated from 1770 to 1925, buying butter from farmers as far away as Listowel and transporting it all over the world, so that ‘Cork Rose Butter’ was regarded as a premium product, like cheese from Parma or wine from Bordeaux.

Maybe you knew all this. But I was oblivious until I did the tourist thing and visited the Butter Museum on the north side of Cork City, as part of a quest to see how I’d get on as a tourist in a place I lived in for 22 years of my life.

Already a subscriber? Sign in