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There are two coves for the price of one here at the hidden Simon’s Cove: in the main cove, giant smooth rocks form beautiful curved shapes.The pebble beach quickly gets to a nice depth for swimming and the high rocks create a cove interesting to explore, both for swimming and climbing its walls. Across the rocks a second small shale beach tucked beneath the rock pavement is perfect for jumping at high water.

Few swimmers know about this hidden bay at the end of the single-track road from Courtmacsherry. Fewer still take the walk along the shoreline trail to the right, squeezing past the front of the house and down the narrow path onto the tessellated rocks along the shore. A few hundred metres leads to a pavement of flat black rock, which abruptly drops away to reveal a curve of shale forming a tiny beach. A narrow channel from the sea between the high black rocks fills this tiny bay. As you look from above, the rock pool seems to open out like a fan as the water flows in in the rising tide.


Simon’s Cove, Courtmacsherry, County Cork.
This womb-like pool is sheltered by the high rocks around and, while children play safely contained, strong swimmers may slip out through this funnel between the rocks and swim along the coast in the open sea. At high water this is a great place for jumping and diving and children will enjoy scouring the rock pools in search of sea urchin and crabs. Return to the main cove where there is a high path on the left side of the beach which leads around the cliffs to Butlerstown Cove, a lovely walk on good weather days.

This is a lovely place to come on the opposite side of Clonakilty Bay, away from the popular Inchydoney strand.
The Clonakilty area has a number of ancient and pre-Celtic sites, including Lios na gCon ringfort.

Normans settlers built castles in the area, and a number of Norman surnames survive to the present day.[citation needed] In 1292, Thomas De Roach received a charter to hold a market every Monday at Kilgarriffe (then called Kyle Cofthy or Cowhig's Wood), close to where the present town now stands.[citation needed]

In the 14th century, a ten-mile strip of fallow woodland called Tuath na gCoillte (the land of the woods) divided the barony of Ibane (Ardfield) and Barryroe and reached the sea at Clonakilty Bay. Here a castle called Coyltes Castell was recorded in a 1378 plea roll. This was subsequently referred to as Cloghnykyltye, one of the many phonetic spellings for Cloch na gCoillte (meaning the castle of the woods, from cloch, the Irish for stone or stone building, and coillte meaning woods).

Clonakilty benefited from the patronage of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork ('the Great Earl'), who is sometimes regarded as its founder.[citation needed] It was this Lord Cork who obtained its charter from King James I of England in 1613 with the right to return members to the Irish House of Commons. The borough of Clonakilty returned two members from 1613 to 1801; it was disenfranchised when the Act of Union came into force in January 1801.

The lands at Clonakilty were later purchased by the Earls of Shannon, another branch of the Boyle dynasty. They remained the main landlords of the town from the eighteenth century through until the early twentieth century.

During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the planted English settlers in Clonakilty fled to Bandon, and much of Clonakilty was burned.English forces retook the town in 1642, in an attack where several hundred of the Confederate Irish forces were killed.Some later 18th century sources stated that English forces killed "238 men, women, and children" after retaking the town. The town was also the site of a battle in 1691, during the Williamite War in Ireland.

The Model Village in Clonakilty is a tourist destination in the area, and includes fully scaled models of Clonakilty and nearby towns - built on a miniature of the area's railway line.

Michael Collins House is a museum dedicated to Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins. The museum is set out in a restored Georgian townhouse on Emmet Square, where Collins lived from 1903 to 1905. The museum tells the story of Collins' life and the history of Irish independence through tours, exhibits, interactive displays, and historical artifacts.[38]

Clonakilty is the home of the world's only "Random Acts of Kindness Festival" set up in 2012 by the local Clonakilty Macra na Feirme Club.[citation needed] The Festival is held each year on the third weekend in July, with the motto: "Cut the Misery and Spread the Positivity".[39]

Clonakilty Street Carnival takes place in June of each year, and involves live music, activities and other events.[40]

Other historical attractions in the town include the Clonakilty Museum, the Georgian houses of Emmet Square and the Micheal Collins Centre which is located a few miles east of the town. A Farmers Market takes place at Emmet Square every Friday