urban district, market town, and fishing port on the west side of the Blackwater Estuary in County Cork, Ireland. It is possible that Danes originally occupied Youghal, but the first known history is that of the establishment of a baronial town by the Anglo-Normans in the 13th century and the granting of a charter by John of England (1199–1216). The town was fortified with walls and towers, parts of which remain. St. Mary's Church was erected about 1250 and contains the elaborate tomb of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, who died in the mid-17th century. Sir Walter Raleigh, the Elizabethan adventurer, was once mayor of the town, and his house, Myrtle Grove, survives. A convent school in Youghal was a centre for the making of Irish needle lace (q.v.) from the mid-19th century to the 20th.

The town is now chiefly noted as an important resort. There are also small textile industries. Pop. (2002) 6,203.