Spike Island in Cork was among two Cork sites to place in the top five attractions in Ireland’s Ancient East at the Irish Tourism Awards, held in Dublin’s Clayton Burlington hotel on Friday last.

The island attraction joined Jameson Distillery Middleton in the top 5 of an extremely competitive field that included the Waterford Greenway, Castlecomer Discovery Park and the House of Waterford Crystal.

The number one spot for the region went to House of Waterford Crystal, whose updated visitors experience in 2015 is now welcoming over 200,000 visitors annually.

The industry awards are the highest tourism accolade in the country and are held every two years.

This is the first year that sites have been separated into the Fáilte Ireland tourism brands the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East.