Fermoy

Fermoy situated in the centre of the lush Blackwater Valley, just 36 km from Cork City along the M8 where you exit at junction 15. Fermoy town has its roots in two main traditions: Religious and Military. A Cistercian Abbey was founded in 1170 and around this Abbey the town developed.

It is on the crossroads between the Rosslare Killarney and Dublin Cork routes. Renowned for inland fishing, it is an attractive base to explore the history and amenities of north and east Co. Cork. It is centrally located for visiting counties Tipperary, Waterford, Limerick and Kerry.

At the dissolution of the Monasteries during the Tudor period, the Abbey and its lands passed through the following dynasties: Viscount Rote of Fermoy, Sir Richard Grenville, Robert Boyle, Scientist ("Boyle's Law"), and William Forward. Fermoy today still retains the religious tradition and three orders are currently educating the young population - St. Colemans and the Presentation and Loretto Convents. The town is famous for attracting future professionals and scholars who spend their formative years in Fermoy.

In 1791 the lands were bought by a Scotsman, John Anderson. He was an entrepreneur who developed the roads and started the mail coach system in Ireland. He designed the town and the streets remain much the same as they were originally built. In the early 19th Century he offered cheap sites to the military and the town fast became a manufacturing and services base for the British army until 1922.

In latter years Fermoy has been renowned for its attraction as an inland fishing centre and has an international appeal for trout, salmon and coarse fishing, the Blackwater and Funshion rivers being the main waters, and a coarse fishery being developed near the town at Knockannig Reservoir.

Strolling around Fermoy you can take in some of the town's architecture cross over its beautiful bridge and take a stroll through the local public park, where you will find the lovely bass plate, seen below, on the entrance wall to the park, erected in memory of the founding father of Fermoy's town centre, John Anderson of the 1700's.