Fodor's Expert Review Cork City Gaol

The austere Georgian Gothic mansion in the center of the complex, with its castellated style and three-story tower, was the governor's residence. The two enormous gray wings that span symmetrically to the left and right detained prisoners for a century. Life-size wax figures occupy the cells, and they illustrate the wretched backstories of those incarcerated and those who held them captive with suitably sombre sound effects. Take note of the weighing chair near the governor’s office–-beneath its bright, timber surface lurks a dark secret; it was used to weigh prisoners in order to establish the rope strength needed for their upcoming rendezvous with the gallows. Rebel leader Constance Markievicz and writer Frank O'Connor were former inmates. The Radio Museum Experience exhibits genuine artifacts from a 1923 radio station, 6CK, and tells the story of radio broadcasting in Cork.