Qualla: Church of St Anne, Shandon

Church of St Anne, Shandon: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Look up at the Cork skyline from anywhere in the city centre and you will find the same building looking back. The tower of St Anne's, Shandon, climbs 36.5 metres of red sandstone and pale limestone above the north bank of the Lee, then another 15 metres of a tapering ornament that Corkonians call the Pepper Pot. On top of the Pepper Pot rotates a 47-kilogram salmon, the city's weather vane, the city's symbol, and - improbably - the subject of a song by a Cork punk band who suggested the fish thinks he's Elvis. The clock on the tower has four faces, and they almost never agree. The locals call it the Four Faced Liar, and the name has stuck for so long it borders on affection.

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of St Anne, Shandon: An Old Fort, a New Church

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit pl:Wikipedysta:A., CC BY 2.5. Shandon comes from the Irish Sean Dún, meaning old fort. A medieval church stood near here from at least 1199, when it was mentioned in the decretals of Pope Innocent III as St Mary on the Mountain. That church survived until the Williamite wars, when it was destroyed in the 1690...

Image: pl:Wikipedysta:A. | CC BY 2.5

Church of St Anne, Shandon: Two Stones, Two Colours, One Rhyme

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Speckled Bird, CC BY-SA 4.0. St Anne's is the architectural reason Cork's civic colours are red and white. The walls were built from two materials: red sandstone salvaged from the ruins of the nearby Shandon Castle, and limestone taken from the derelict Franciscan Abbey that once stood on the North Mall. The...

Image: The Speckled Bird | CC BY-SA 4.0

Church of St Anne, Shandon: Eight Bells from Gloucester

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PeterH, CC BY-SA 4.0. The eight bells of Shandon were cast in Gloucester, England by Abel Rudhall in 1750, shipped across the Irish Sea, hauled up the tower, and first rung on 7 December 1752. The largest weighs a little over 1.5 tons. To reduce vibration on the old structure, the bells were installed...

Image: PeterH | CC BY-SA 4.0

Church of St Anne, Shandon: The Four-Faced Liar

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bkwillwm, CC BY-SA 3.0. The clock on the tower has four faces, one looking in each cardinal direction. The walls of the tower are two metres thick, and the four sets of hands are driven by a single mechanism deep inside the structure. The wind catches the hands differently on each side. The light catche...

Image: Bkwillwm | CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of St Anne, Shandon: A Salmon and a 1629 Font

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Réidín Kelleher, CC BY-SA 4.0. On top of the Pepper Pot adornment a giant copper salmon turns in the wind, the city's weather vane representing the fishing of the River Lee. The Cork band Five Go Down to the Sea? memorialised it in their song There's a Fish on Top of Shandon (Swears He's Elvis), which is exact...

Image: Réidín Kelleher | CC BY-SA 4.0