Sheila's Hostel

Great atmosphere and amazing staff. The hostel outperforms a lot of other places when it comes to amenities. The kitchen is humongous and well equipped to handle a large number of people cooking and dining at the same time. Does the designated eating area and lots of other common spaces. It has a rooftop a lounge by the check-in and additional quiet area to sit and get work done. I really appreciated the number of different spaces you could hang out in outside of your room. The hostel has paid parking on site (parking is paid and all of Cork - a few euros so nothing too expensive and free after 6:30 p.m.). My only qualm is that the rooms themselves are quite small and a bit cramped. I also wish that the rooms themselves had more hooks within them to hang items. Dorms have lockers available with each bed and there are additional lockers that you can purchase for storage. There's also on-site laundry that can be utilized which really helps with making the stay here a revilazing one. It's located in a really great spot in town just walking distance to many of the great areas of Cork's center and right by the buses to both Dublin and Cork airport

I’ll be honest, I had a great stay here. Beds comfortable and clean, rooms and bathrooms cleans too! I didn’t use the shower or have breakfast, but all amenities are there, kitchen well organised, and the building is nice and quiet. Liked the privacy curtains, I feel a lot of hostels have gotten rid of them recently. Would defo reccomend and Return!!

I stay in Sheila’s most weeks because I take night classes in UCC and honestly for the price you cannot complain. It is one of the best value spots in Cork. The location is perfect for anyone coming in and out by train. I leave early in the mornings and it is only about a ten minute walk to the station which makes life so much easier. I have seen some people mention the types of guests who stay here. As an Irish woman, I get it. The housing crisis means fewer tourists and more people who are stuck for accommodation. That is the reality in Cork and across the country. Even with that, I have always felt safe here. I have stayed in both mixed dorms and female dorms and never had an issue. There is an Ask for Angela policy in place too which gives that extra bit of comfort. The staff are sound and always approachable. The place is kept very clean. The rooms are small but the beds are comfy and, honestly, you get exactly what you pay for. For a budget hostel that’s central, safe and reliable, Sheila’s is a solid choice. I keep coming back every week for a reason.

I would like to share my very positive experience at Sheila’s Hostel. It is an excellent accommodation, especially for coeliacs, as they offer gluten-free options at breakfast — including two types of gluten-free cereals and gluten-free bread. They also have a separate toaster used exclusively for gluten-free bread, which is fantastic. I would like to highlight that whenever they served me gluten-free bread, they always used gloves, as they also handle regular bread. This level of care and attention was simply magnificent, as was the friendly service throughout my stay. Without a doubt, Sheila’s Hostel is a perfect accommodation choice for anyone with coeliac disease visiting Cork.

Booked a room to share with daughter. The room was clean. The radiator was never on so got cold especially at night and when getting up. Did take flip flops for shower and glad I did as there was hair etc on floor if had one after 6-7pm. Cleaners were very noisy on a morning! The front desk staff were excellent. Shame the cinema room the TV wasn't on. Didn't use the kitchen but looked well laid out. Toilet on each floor but sometimes had to wait a while for it to be free as people would wash face etc. there is a shower room for this. Walls very thin.

The hostel is great, extremely close to the city center. The rooms are clean, quiet, staff friendly, helpful. The beds are comfortable, the breakfast is excellent and wort it. It's cheap and perfect for refuelling before walking extensively in the city center.

The desk staff was lovely and very helpful. The accommodations are adequate, nothing too special, though I did like the curtains on the bunks- provides much needed privacy! In fact, I wish all hostels had curtains on each bunk. It feels very cramped and tight in the rooms, with not much open floor space or room to even get by another person. There were a lot of people there. It gets the job done as far as a place to stay, just don’t be expecting comfort or luxury. Clean enough, comfortable enough. There is a massive hill that must be climbed to reach this accommodation, so take that into consideration.

A very big hostel with lots of rooms. The rooms themselves are a bit small and crowded, but good enough to stay in for a night or two. Showers and toilets are located on each floor and were not the cleanest, but everything was in working order. The kitchen is spacious with 3 stoves, fridge, sink and all the appliances you might need. There is space to park your car in front of the hostel and you can easily reach the city center on foot in a 5 minute walk.

Great location in Cork, and very clean. If you want the hostel experience, this is a good place to have it. My only complaints were that room 117 (being at the top of the building) gets incredibly hot, and the showers are either hot as h*ll or slightly colder than room temp. There's no in between or control.

Written words cannot describe how negative my experience was. Hostel itself was not the absolute worse, however, the caliber of individuals staying here was horrendous. Room was full of 40+ year old men, as a young female, I was extremely uncomfortable. EVERYONE snored egregiously loud ALL NIGHT in conjunction with someone moaning aggressively every 10 minutes. I would not wish a night in this room on my worst enemy. WILL NEVER BE BACK to Sheila's as a result. Save yourself and stay as far away from this place as possible.

I stayed here for 3 nights last summer. While the staff were very helpful and friendly, we encountered several issues during our stay. One is that some of the bathrooms were filthy. The water closets reeked of urine and the floors were oddly quite sticky. There is a newer shower room on the bottom floor which is very clean, but the others are a bit dirty and rundown. The location of our room in respect to the bathrooms and locker rooms was inconvenient. Our beds were on one floor, but the bathrooms were up a flight of stairs and the lockers were down a couple flights. After staying here, I knew I should always stay in all-female rooms. There was a real creepy German guy in the bunk across from me who kept staring and smiling at me and my friend while we were getting ready to go to bed. He didn't do anything to us, though we felt very uncomfortable the last night we were there. We were very ready to leave the next morning however.

Sheila's is exactly what you need for a budget stay in a party town! She is clean, she is close and she feeds you, all you can eat, in the morning! Sauna had been broken the day we got there but was being fixed. SHE HAS A SAUNA! She was also the cheapest option of the 3 main hostels in the city, I have stayed in them all so for value (and of course SAUNA!) I would recommend her most of all. Also, I left a brand new Liverpool home kit in my room and she posted it back for free. Decent, Dedicated, Down to Earth and Deadly!

Decent hostel with all the basics. Building is old and it shows. My 8-bed dorm was extremely cramped, hardly any room between bunk beds. No locker storage in the room makes for even tighter spaces with everyone's backpacks around. Layout of the hostel was confusing. There are signs for the ladies bathroom, but it would point to a bathroom used by both sexes. The lights in one of the toilet stalls and one of the shower stalls weren't working. I found out later there were additional shower facilities on the first floor. Kitchen was large with a long dining room table, counter and plenty of burners and ovens. However, it can be crowded when everyone is cooking their dinners at the same time. There were additional places to dine in the common room next to the kitchen which had a TV. There was also another common room close to the reception. Unfortunately never got around to using the sauna nor cinema room during my 2-night stay. On a personal note...during my stay, I met a German girl I had met previously at Mount Brandon Hostel. Then while hitchhiking toward my next town, I got picked up by a French guy who was staying in my hostel room. So I'll remember the hostel for those two encounters, more than anything else :D

Very cheap hostel, but it shows. Cleanliness- not very clean. We stayed for 3 nights and had multiple roommates and don't think the beds were properly cleaned for the next guests at all. Bathrooms are disgusting. Showers were nice tho, except for they were sometimes ice cold depending on the time of day. The place ALWAYS smelled like cigarettes or weed. Crowd- there was an extremely old man, probably 75-80, staying in our room. It was weird and there should have been a cut-off age. There is no "quiet hours" so other guests were loud all night long. Location- very good location. About a 5 minute walk from shopping, food, and sight seeing tours. The only reason I rated this a 2 is because the front desk was always polite and helpful. They made our stay a little better.

Sheila's is better than I expected for a budget friendly stay in beautiful Cork. It's location is perfectly located near both the train and the Parnell bus station (less than 15 min walk) ; only think you'll find a bit difficult is the up hill walk... but that's to be expected in Cork with it's San Francisco-esque hills. Sheila's is clean, comfortable, and has the most amazing employees who did everything they could to help me out with directions as well as schooled me in the way of pronouncing correctly the sight seeing areas around Cork's center. I was completely satisfied with my service and stay here. Especially it being the first hostel I've ever stayed at, it's brought up my standards of what type of hostels are out there. FYI they serve breakfast in the morning for 3 euro... 3 EURO!!! That's an amazing value & you get orange juice, coffee, toast (3 pieces), and cereal!!!! So good... saved me from splurging unnecessarily for breakfast out. They provide you with a locker as well 1 euro per day, with a 5 euro deposit.

The girls and I fancied a cheap weekend break and so ended up at Sheilas. From the directions we were given and after a short stroll up a steep hill we found it.. The girls on reception were friendly enough and after explaining how things worked we headed to our 4 berth room. It was the size of a shoe box as you would expect with 2 sets of bunk beds. The room was a bit grubby and we had to take turns standing at the mirror when getting ready, but it all added to the fun. The WC/Showers were just around the corner and relatively clean, though 2 of each left the odd queue of a morning. 3 We didn't sample the food there, opting for take away pizza or M&S grub, but the kitchen and facilities were large and well equipped. There was free internet which seemed popular and the hostel even hires out towels (5 euro with 4 euro's back on return). All in all we had a blast and would recommend Sheila's Hostel!

Just sitting in their lobby now after having checked out. Super helpful and friendly staff here that work to the nth degree to make sure you have everything you need! Very reasonably priced and great food, coffee and wifi. Being transgender, I was also delighted to see that they had the option of using a gender neutral toilet/shower facility. My only complaint would have been the thin pillows, but they'll happily give you a second one at no extra charge if you ask politely! Looking forward to my next stay here!

This place is great to stay if you are really strapped for Euros. Although the hostel had plenty of facilities, the facilities were a little worn down and the staff looked as though they'd rather be somewhere else. On the plus side, the cafe and wine bar is generally pretty good here and the hostel is very close to the nightlife of Cork.

Great location! Clean accommodations and common space. Patty from the front desk was awesome in giving us recommendations and guidance around the city. Very close location to the main parts of the city, just know that it's on top of a very tall hill- not for the faint of heart!

Very nice staff at this hostel. The front desk people were friendly and helpful. We had a rough nights stay and were properly taken care of for the following night. The communal shower rooms and bathrooms are really well kept to be clean and inviting. The only cons were location (up a pretty massive hill) and the breakfast isn't free. All in all a great value and great place for a short stay in Cork.

Clean, convenient and close to local amenities so good for a visit. They have an area where they play movies, an internet cafe, a mini-shop and wine bar. Our room had an en-suite adjacent to the area with our bunkbeds. It's a reasonable price for use of the facilities for whatever time you're visiting and has local nightlife and dining options. Recommended.