The Castlepark peninsula in

Kinsale Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a population of 5,281 ...

harbour on the coast of

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns ar ...

, on the south coast of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

is really more a presque-isle than a peninsula, being joined to the mainland only by an extremely narrow neck at its north-western corner. Thus, the Castlepark peninsula is almost surrounded by water: the

River Bandon The River Bandon ( ga, Abhainn na Bandan, from ''ban-dea'', meaning "goddess") is a river in County Cork, Ireland. The Bandon rises at Nowen Hill (one of the Shehy Mountains), to the north of Drimoleague. The river then flows to Dunmanway, ...

, flowing from the north-west, bounds the peninsula on the north; the entrance to Kinsale harbour bounds the peninsula on the east; the Atlantic Ocean bounds it to the south; and the tidal inlet known as Sandycove Creek bounds the peninsula on the west. Most traffic into Castlepark now arrives via the Duggan Bridge, built in 1976, which crosses the River Bandon from the northern, Kinsale, bank just east of the neck which joins the peninsula to the mainland. Among the old buildings on the peninsula are: James's Fort (early 17th century); Ringrone Castle (12th or 13th century), a former

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair (furniture), ...

of the Barons Kingsale; and the ruins of Ringrone Church, the latter surrounded by an ancient graveyard that is still in use. Court records from the later seventeenth century show that much of the land was held by two families, the Brocketts and the Bathursts, both fairly recently arrived from England. A series of lawsuits testify to the poor relations between the two families. Located within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

Courceys Courceys is a barony in County Cork on the south coast of Ireland. Its name refers to the Norman ''de Courcy'' family, Barons Kingsale, who ruled the area from the early 13th century. The villages in the parish include Ballinspittle and Ball ...

, the peninsula, which has an area of a little under , contains three

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

s: ''James's Fort'', ''Castlepark'' and ''Castlelands''. The ''James's Fort''

, which contains James's Fort, is, itself, a peninsula, protruding out of the north-eastern corner of the Castlepark peninsula. On the western side of the neck which joins the James's Fort peninsula to the main Castlepark peninsula, there is a

marina A marina (from Spanish language, Spanish , Portuguese language, Portuguese and Italian language, Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a Dock (maritime), dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina dif ...

; on the eastern side of the neck, there is a sandy

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

; a small village, most of whose houses were built in the 1970s although some date back to at least the early 19th century, straddles the neck. The rest of the peninsula consists of farmland with scattered housing. Most of the land is used for

tillage Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoe ...

(

cereal A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more foo ...

s and

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet ('' Beta vulgaris''). Together ...

), although there is some grazing of

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...

and

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sh ...

. By the late 1990s, only one of the

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

s was still involved in dairying.

Sandycove Island Sandycove Island (''Cnoc an Rois'' in Irish) is a small island and townland at the mouth of Ardkilly Creek on the south coast of Ireland, just to the west of the Castlepark peninsula, which forms the western side of the entrance to Kinsale harbou ...

, at the mouth of

Sandycove Creek Sandycove () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is southeast of Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, and northwest of Dalkey. It is a popular seaside resort and is well known for its bathing place, the Forty Foot, which in the past was reserved for me ...

, is uninhabited; a herd of

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of ...

s grazes the island so, presumably,

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

is available.

Gallery

Image:CastleparkBoreenAugust2005.jpg, Country lane ("

boreen A boreen or bohereen ( ; ga, bóithrín , meaning 'a little road') is a country lane, or narrow, frequently unpaved, rural road in Ireland. "Boreen" also appears sometimes in names of minor urban roads such as Saint Mobhi Bóithrín ( ga, B� ...

", from Irish ''bóithrín'') on the Castlepark peninsula in August 2005 Image:JamesFortBlockhouseKinsale.jpg, The blockhouse, part of the James's Fort complex at Castlepark; taken from the Scilly side of Kinsale Harbour, looking southwards Image:CastleparkKinsaleBigger.jpg, Map of Castlepark, closeup detail.

References

{{coord, 51.6952, N, 8.5153, W, region:IE_type:city, display=title Ports and harbours of the Republic of Ireland Kinsale