46 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com NOVEMBER 2015PILOTAGE
Cork Harbour is steeped in history, offers beauty
and tranquillity, and makes a perfect cruising area.
Norman Kean describes its attractions
Cruising the
historic and
beautiful
Cork Harbour
L
ike New York and Paris, the
city of Cork was founded on an
island in the middle of its river.
Cork has ancient origins and a
proud history, and regards itself
as the true capital of Ireland, despite the
upstart pretensions of Dublin. With a
population of 120,000, Cork is the third
largest city on the island of Ireland and
the second city of the Republic. The River
Lee winds its way through the city and
opens into one of the world’s largest and
best sheltered natural harbours. Home to
the world’s oldest yacht club, steeped in
history, a hive of modern industry, a naval
base and a major port, Cork Harbour
also has corners of breathtaking beauty
and tranquillity, and makes a perfect
miniature cruising ground in itself.
The ship channel stretches for 12 miles
from the entrance at Roche’s Point to the
centre of the city, and the harbour has
a further eight miles of easily navigablechannels among its islands. The largest of
these, Great Island, is bridged to the north
shore and fronted by the town of Cobh,
from where tenders to transatlantic liners
used to sail and where huge cruise liners
now berth alongside. Cobh has its Titanic
museum, commemorating the doomed
ship whose last port of call this was.
Facing Cobh, the magnifi cent
Napoleonic-era buildings on Haulbowline
Island are the headquarters of the Irish
Naval Service. Ireland has eight long-range
patrol vessels that sail from here to police
14 per cent of the EU’s territorial seas.
Nearby, the 108-acre Spike Island has only
recently been opened to visitors, after 200
years of exclusive military and state use
as a fortress and prison. Although many
of its buildings are dilapidated, Spike is
unspoiled, in a curious and unusual way.
Only hundreds of yards from the industrial
complexes of Whitegate and Ringaskiddy,
its untended wildfl ower meadows sit belowthe massive walls of its 19th-century star
fort, and the overgrown ruins of its prison
hospital and the old Convicts’ Graveyard,
are especially poignant.
The big sailing centre in the harbour
is at Crosshaven, where the Owenboy
River meets the sea. Crosshaven has three‘Cork regards
itself as the true
capital of Ireland’
PHOTO: PATRICK ROACHThe lighthouse on
Roche’s Point marks the
entrance to Cork Harbour