Free for everyone; exterior viewing only, with no staff, tickets or booking. The ferry from Baltimore is charged (cash on board; adult €15 return on the operator's list, 20 October 2026).
Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.
The friary is on Sherkin Island, reached by the passenger ferry from Baltimore pier (about ten minutes, run by the Sherkin Island Ferry all year, weather permitting; cash only on board, no booking). The friary is about 100 m from the island pier. Visitors park in Baltimore; OPW names no car park there.
Pin: the friary itself, on the island; there is no car park. The ferry's Baltimore departure is about 1.9 km across the harbour.
A ten-minute ferry ride from Baltimore, just above the pier on Sherkin Island, stands the Franciscan friary founded around 1460 by the local chieftain Fineen O'Driscoll and still known on the island as the Abbey. It has a nave and chancel divided by a squat inserted tower, low by Franciscan standards, a south transept with two side chapels behind an arcade of pointed arches, and the remains of the cloister and domestic buildings. Burned in 1537 in a reprisal against the O'Driscolls, it carried on until Cromwellian soldiers confiscated it in 1650, and it passed to the Board of Works in 1895. Excavations during repairs between 1987 and 1990 found burials in the cloister walks, a 17th-century well and pottery from as far as China, traces of the trade, fishing and piracy around Baltimore Harbour; beside the friary stands the wall of a fish palace where pilchards were pressed. The friary is viewed from outside only, and reviewers say the island is well worth the crossing.
An unguided open-air national monument in OPW's care with no staff and no facilities. OPW warns that care and caution should be kept throughout a visit to its unguided sites.
OPW's notice: external viewing only; the interior is not open. OPW also notes that access to the island is by boat.
Sherkin Island Ferry, October to May (operator, 20 October 2026): from Baltimore on weekdays from 07:45 to 17:45 (later on Wednesday and Friday), Saturday 09:00 to 19:00 and Sunday 10:30 to 17:45; the last return from Sherkin is usually 18:00. Sailings are subject to weather.
A grass slope above the pier with walls and gates; the ferry may involve a few steps. No facilities at the friary.
Photo: Sherkin Friary's gabled ranges and squat central tower, with the Baltimore Beacon on the far headland. Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherkin_Friary_2017_09_01.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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