North Mall

North Mall at Vincent's Bridge

Photograph showing view of the North Mall, looking East from Vincent's Bridge

Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

North Mall at Vincent's Bridge
Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

North Mall at Vincent's Bridge

Photograph showing view of the North Mall, looking East from Vincent's Bridge

Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

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During the middle ages the North Mall was the site of a Franciscan friary. The friary was known variously as Shandon Abbey, North Abbey, Saint Mary's Shandon, and Saint Francis's Abbey. The friary was almost certainly founded by Diarmaid MacCarthy Mór, King of Desmond, in 1229. The friary was suppressed during the Reformation, but its ruins survived until 1836 when they were demolished before the building of Abbey Square. A well whose waters were popularly supposed to have curative properties existed near the friary. The well is recalled in the name of the present-day Franciscan Well microbrewery on the North Mall .

Wise's Hill

Francis Wise's House, North Mall

Photograph shows the house of Francis Wise on North Mall looking towards Wise's Hill

Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

Francis Wise's House, North Mall
Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

Francis Wise's House, North Mall

Photograph shows the house of Francis Wise on North Mall looking towards Wise's Hill

Cork Camera Club collection, Cork City Libraries

Enlarge image

The house at the junction of the North Mall and Wise's Hill was the residence of the distiller Francis Wise, after whose family the hill is named. The North Mall distillery was established on Reilly's Marsh around 1779, and by 1802 the Wise brothers were running the firm. Cork Distillers Co. bought the distillery in 1867. The North Mall distillery was described in detail in Alfred Barnard's The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, published in 1887. A fire severely damaged the distillery in 1920. The site of the old distillery is now jointly owned by University College Cork and the Mercy University Hospit al.