The Lusitania Memorial Garden tells the story of the ship's last, fateful journey from New York and its sinking by a German U-Boat in 1915. The Old Head of Kinsale is the nearest point of land to the site where the Cunard liner was torpedoed by U-20, claiming 1,198 lives.

The memorial is adjacent to a restored Napoleonic era signal tower, one of 81 built throughout Ireland to watch for French invasion.