Crookhaven () is a village in

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 ...

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 ...

, on the most southwestern tip of the

island 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 secon ...

. With an out-of-season population of about sixty, it swells in the summer season to about four hundred, when the occupants of the seasonal holiday homes arrive.

History

The village name is attributed to an association with the Crooke family, and initially with

Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet, of Baltimore (1574–1630) was an English-born politician, lawyer and landowner in seventeenth-century Ireland. He is chiefly remembered as the founder of the town of Baltimore, County Cork, which he developed into ...

who also founded

Baltimore, County Cork Baltimore (, ; , translated as the "Fort of the Jewels") is a village in western County Cork, Ireland. It is the main village in the parish of Rathmore and the Islands, the southernmost parish in Ireland. It is the main ferry port to Sherkin Isla ...

about 1610. The Crooke family were granted large estates in West Cork in the early 17th century, but their association with the area ended around 1665, on the death of Sir Thomas's son and heir Sir Samuel. In the late 1500s and early 1600s the village was used as a base for piracy - where not only the local justices (including the vice-admiral of

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following th ...

) but the broader population were involved. These activities were unaffected by official discouragement under King

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

, but the Dutch attack on Crookhaven in 1614 did significant damage and English piracy in the region declined thereafter. The village was an important port of call for

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ex ...

between

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, and many inhabitants were in the business of supplying the ships as they sheltered in Crookhaven after or before a long voyage. In 1959 Crookhaven was the subject of a film by English film maker James Clarke in his film ''Irish Village''. At that time the film records the population of the town and local farms as being 69. Crookhaven was also used by

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This led to Marconi b ...

as a location for experiments in wireless communication and ship-to-shore communication. Some of these tests and experiments took place between the Fastnet lighthouse, Crookhaven, and Cape Clear Island - since they were so closely connected. The area was useful for these purposes as a fixed telegraph line also connected Crookhaven and Cape Clear Island - located eight miles away. Marconi worked here from 1901 until 1914 when he sold the rights. The station was ultimately destroyed in 1922.

Amenities

The village has three pubs. O'Sullivans faces the

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

and its walls are adorned with historical pictures of the village and notes about the area. Nottage's (or ''The Welcome Inn'') is only open during the summer. The pub was once owned by a Mr Nottage, who came to the village from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

to work at the Marconi signal station. The third pub is ''The Crookhaven Inn''. The pub building today was once the bottle store for the larger pub and hotel located across the road. When the original building was converted to flats, the bottle store was converted. The village also has a shop and post office located next to O'Sullivans. As with certain other amenities, the Crookhaven Harbour Sailing Club also only opens in the summer.

Places of interest

The road to the village comes from Goleen and curves around the harbour. As one drives from Goleen, one passes a road to the left leading onto Rock Island. Originally this was the site of a

coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

station - which replaced an earlier station to its south. The "new" station was occupied from 1907 until 1921. During the height of the

War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which resi ...

, British Marines were stationed there to protect the station and Brow Head War Signal Station. During their occupation, the IRA destroyed Brow Head. Also on Rock Island was a fishery plant. From here most of the

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater env ...

of Ireland was exported to Europe. The ponds were open until the late 1970s, then it became a food processing plant packaging

garlic butter Garlic butter, also known as ''beurre à la bourguignonne'', is a compound butter used as a flavoring for many dishes or as a condiment.''Larousse Gastronomique'' (1961), Crown Publishers(''Translated from the French, Librairie Larousse, Paris ...

and

mussels Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which ...

- but since fell derelict.

Transport & communications

The village is located in south-western Ireland, from Cork and from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. The nearest airport to Crookhaven is Cork Airport, and the regional road R591 ends in the village. Crookhaven has no scheduled public transport.

Notable people

Jeremiah Coghlan Jeremiah Coghlan CB (c. 1776 – 4 March 1844) was a British naval officer.Not to be confused with merchant and shipowneJeremiah Coghlan 1756-88 He was famous for his almost legendary feats of daring during the French Revolutionary and N ...

, naval captain in the French Revolutionary and

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, "an officer almost unrivaled in heroic exploits".

References