Haulbowline ( ga, Inis Sionnach; non, Ál-boling) is an island in

Cork Harbour Cork Harbour () is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" (after Port Ja ...

off the coast of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. The world's first yacht club was founded on Haulbowline in 1720. The western side of the island is the main naval base and headquarters for the

Irish Naval Service The Naval Service ( ga, An tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh) is the maritime component of the Defence Forces of Ireland and is one of the three branches of the Irish Defence Forces. Its base is in Haulbowline, County Cork. Though preceded by earlier ma ...

, with the eastern side previously used for

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

and later redeveloped as a park. Since 1966 the island has been connected to the mainland by a roadbridge.

Etymology

The island's name may derive from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''ál-boling'' or similar = "eel dwelling" ("area where there are conger eels"). The 17th and 18th-century spellings end in "-ing"; there may have been nautical influence on the spelling later. The

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

name for the island, ''Inis Sionnach'', translates to "island of the foxes".

Demographics

Naval history

At a strategic and deepwater position in the harbour, the island has long been a military base. The island was first fortified in 1602, and initially an important base for the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

. In 1603 the Cork city fathers were accused of attempting to demolish it, and William Meade, the

Recorder of Cork The Recorder of Cork was a judicial office holder in pre-Independence Ireland. The Recorder was the chief magistrate of Cork city: his principal duty was to keep the peace. The office was very similar to that of the Recorder of Dublin, except that ...

, was charged with

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

as a result. In 1720, much of the island was owned by the Cork Water Club, later connected to the Royal Cork Yacht Club (claimed as the world's first yacht club). There was a castle on the island which was the clubhouse for the Cork Water Club. In 1806, the British Army moved to nearby Spike Island, and the fortifications were handed over, with of land going to the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

, and the remaining to the

Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence o ...

. (At the time the island was less than half its present size.) LE Aisling

An Ordnance Yard was established on the westernmost part of the island, separated from the rest by a large stone wall. A

Martello tower Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand u ...

was built for defence, and in 1808 a pair of

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

were erected on nearby Rocky Island with capacity for 25,000 barrels of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...

. East of the wall a Victualling Yard was laid out, and from 1807–1824 a series of buildings were constructed, several of which are still standing. Most prominent are six large Storehouses, three grouped together around a quay on the north side of the island, and three along what was then its eastern edge. Behind these was a large rectangular rainwater tank (which collected fresh water for the ships), on top of which was a quadrangular

cooperage A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable. Journeymen coopers also traditionally made ...

complex. To the south were a mast and boat store, at the top of a slipway, and to the west, along the length of the wall, were cottages and houses for the workers and officers of the yard. At this time, some was added to the island through

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamat ...

, the first of several such additions. LE Niamh

Quite soon after so much investment, the Navy announced the closure of the Yard in 1831; ten years later, though, it reopened. The next major development came in the 1860s with the establishment of a

Royal Navy Dockyard Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial c ...

on Haulbowline, for warship repair and construction. To accommodate this new industrial complex the island was doubled in size to a total of around . The large basin was constructed, which today bisects the island, with a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

at one end (extended to just prior to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

). By the 20th century, the (now renamed) Royal Alexandra Victualling Yard area also contained a coaling/fuelling depot, as well as a naval hospital (housed in one of the Storehouses). In June 1940, an Irish Marine and Coastwatching Service Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) returned to Haulbowline after making two trips to rescue French and British soldiers during the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allies of World War II, Allied soldiers during the World War II, Second World War from the bea ...

Unlike the other fortifications in

, which formed part of the

treaty ports Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

, the dockyard was handed over to the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

in 1923, and remains the main naval base and headquarters for the

. The majority of the Naval Service campus is on the west of the Island - much of it within the former Ordnance Yard – save for the service's football pitch which was reclaimed from land on the eastern side in the 1980s. In September 2014, the Minister for Defence

Simon Coveney Simon Coveney (born 16 June 1972) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment since December 2022 and Deputy Leader of Fine Gael since 2017. He previously served as Minister for Foreign Af ...

announced plans for a €50m upgrade of the naval base with improved

quays A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

to cater for the Naval Service's new ships and the construction of a

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

to enable the Naval Service to operate UAV drones. In March 2008, one of the historic 19th century industrial storehouses on Haulbowline Island was destroyed by fire, leaving only its walls still standing.

Industry and development

Irish Steel site

Irish Steel (later known as Irish Ispat) was based on the east of the island, on the site formerly occupied by the 1869 Dockyard, between 1939 and 2001. During this time, waste products from the steel making process were dumped or stored on the site, and radioactive and Chromium 6 contamination remained in the soil after the plant closed. The contamination from this period of industrial use has been cited as a potential impact to the future development of the island, and campaigners, including Erin Brockovich, had requested government action on the contamination issue. The island's 'East Tip' was made up of slag and other waste material from the plant; it added a further to the size of Haulbowline Island, increasing it from approximately to over in size. In July 2006, it was announced that the former steel plant site would be developed with apartments, offices, a hotel and a marina. However, this plan was shelved when the

celtic tiger The "Celtic Tiger" ( ga, An Tíogar Ceilteach) is a term referring to the economy of Ireland from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, a period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment. The boom was dampened by a subseque ...

came to an end in 2008.

Park

In 2014, plans were publicised by the Department of Agriculture and the Marine which anticipated the upgrading of the island's road bridge, to facilitate the clean-up of the former Irish Steel site for redevelopment as a park. Originally estimated at €40m, the cost of the clean-up and redevelopment was later updated to at least €61m, and (as of late 2016) queried for its suitability. While some of the clean-up and park development works were completed before the end of 2018, some reports questioned the potential public health risks arising from residual contaminants on what was "one of the country’s worst polluted former industrial sites". Following the cleanup and park developments, it was intended that the Department of Agriculture and the Marine and

Department of Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

would transfer the parkland to

Cork County Council Cork County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Chorcaí) is the authority responsible for local government in County Cork, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and ...

in May 2019. This transfer, however, was deferred following "a delay in preparing the lease for the site". The park, officially known as Haulbowline Island Amenity Park, was opened to the public in January 2021.

References

{{Coord, 51, 50.5, N, 8, 18, W, region:IE_type:isle, display=title Islands of County Cork Irish Naval Service Military of the Republic of Ireland Cobh