North of the River Lee is the area known as Shandon, a sadly neglected reminder of Cork's eighteenth-century status as the most important port in Europe for dairy products. To get there head up John Redmond Street, or simply aim for the giant fish atop the church tower.The most striking survival is the Cork Butter Exchange, stout nineteenth-century Classical buildings recently given over to rather quiet craft workshops. The old butter market itself sits like a generously proportioned butter tub in a cobbled square, and now houses the Firkin Crane Theatre.
Despite the air of dereliction, this part of town is worth a visit for the pleasant Georgian church of St Anne's Shandon (1750), easily distinguishable from all over Cork city by its weather vane – an eleven-foot salmon. The church is perhaps most famous for its bells, which feature in the verse of Father Prout, a nineteenth-century fictional character devised by an ex-Jesuit to satirize the church. You can climb its tower (daily: June – September 9:30am – 5:30pm; October – May 10am – 3:30pm; £3/€3.81) for excellent views and ring the bells – a good stock of sheet tunes is provided.