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Spike Island trumps Harry Potter to win global travel award

November 6th, 2019 3:20 PM

By Southern Star Team

Photo from Shutterstock

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Spike Island Cork has been crowned ‘Best Attraction' at the prestigious ‘International Travel and Tourism Awards' (ITTA's) 2019, held in London.

SPIKE Island Cork has been crowned ‘Best Attraction’ at the prestigious ‘International Travel and Tourism Awards’ (ITTA’s) 2019, held in London.

The Cork County Council site represented Ireland alongside the Cliffs of Moher in the final six shortlist with Ireland the only country to have two sites in the final line-up.

Also included in the shortlist was Harry Potter at Warner Bros studios London, the Dark Sky reserve at Alqueva Portugal, Disney’s new outdoor park venture Les Villages Nature in Paris and the Shoko Shuseikan Museum in Japan which showcases 800 years of Japanese history.

The island attraction opened to the public in June 2016 following a multi million euro refurbishment completed by Cork County Council and Failte Ireland, which saw several areas opened to the public.

The island tells the story of Irish history through the island’s unique eyes, which includes a monastery in the 7th century, a fortress built to defend the British empire in the 1700’s, the world’s largest prison during the famine years in the 1850’s and the modern prison that opened in 1985.

The island was also a home to the Irish army and navy defence forces whose stories are told in exhibitions.

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