Visited with friends at the height of Storm Ciara. Trip out was a little bit choppy, and it was a bit windy on the island, but its Ireland in winter, don't expect to need your sunscreen. We decided to stay with Kyle, our guide, as did most people (you can simply wander off and not be guided, but our thinking was to take the tour and then explore on our own after it ended). Well, we'd made it into the fortress (which was MUCH larger than I had expected - this place is HUGE!) when Kyle's radio went off and after a short discussion he informed us that due to the deteriorating weather they were worried we wouldn't be able to get off the island, and so we were being "evacuated". He clearly was disappointed for us, so rushed us around the fort trying to show us everything important. This spoke to both his enthusiam for the island and also his knowledge - a guide on a script couldn't have improvised like that. Thanks to this, I think we saw most of the "sights". Eventually we made our way back to the boat, which was definitely bobbing around. While waiting to depart one of the guides/operators announced that they were sorry we'd had to leave early, and that everyone would be refunded in full, either by reversing the transaction (if electronic) or by just getting their cash back if they had paid cash. Given that we were on the island for almost 2 hours and had 90% of the tour, this was more than fair. I'm sure they could easily have claimed "force majure/act of god", but they didn't (and my friend, who had booked it on credit card, was indeed promptly refunded) The place itself is interesting, and I'd recommend it for that anyway, but the superlative customer service in difficult circumstances means I'm only giving them 5 stars because I can't give six!

Cannot believe we had not been here before. This is a great family day out for kids of all ages. As an adult I found the history of it extremely interesting. The only thing I could fault is the cafe is a bit pricy especially if you have a few kids, but you could bring a packed lunch and have a picnic. The view from spike is amazing I got some beautiful pictures

Karl with a "K" was our tour guide, and he gave us a very informative & interesting tour of the history of Cobh & the Island. Social distancing was well maintained, one way system in place, face masks were worn in indoor spaces. We would highly recommend the Spike Island tour to people of all ages.