#SpikeIsland - In Cork Harbour the visitor centre on Spike Island run by Cork County Council has been named Europe's leading tourist attraction at the 2017 World Travel Awards.

RTE news writes that Fortress Spike Island saw off competition from the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace and Rome's Colosseum to win the award.

The 104-acre Spike Island was a monastic settlement in the seventh century, a British artillery fortification from the 18th century, and a prison from where thousands of convicts were transported to Australia in the 19th century.

It remained under British control, even after the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, and was handed over to the Irish State in 1938.

It operated as a prison again from 1985 until the last of the prisoners left in 2004.

To read more on this tourist attraction award, click here.