Kieran’s National Heritage Week Tours 2025 continue

I am half way through National Heritage Week at present and I am hosting more historical walking tours in the next few days. All are free, two hours and no booking is required.

Thursday 21 August: Douglas and its History, historical walking tour in association with Douglas Tidy Towns. Discover the history of industry and the development of this historic village, meet in the carpark of Douglas Community Centre at 6.30pm (circuit of village, finishes nearby).

The district of Douglas takes its names from the river or rivulet bearing the Gaelic word Dubhghlas or dark stream. As early as the late thirteenth century King John of England made a grant of parcels of land, near the city of Cork to Philip de Prendergast.

On 1 June 1726, Douglas factory began to be built. Samuel Perry & Francis Carleton became the first proprietors. The Douglas Sailcloth Factory is said to have been founded by a colony of weavers from Fermanagh. The eighteenth century was a golden age for wooden sailing ships, before the early nineteenth century coincided with steam and iron as prerequisites for modern navies and trading fleets. The era was also a golden age too for maritime exploration, with the voyages of James Cook amongst others opening up the Pacific and the South Seas. Douglas in its own way added in part to this world of exploration.

Friday 22 August: The Marina - Discover the history of the city’s promenade, from forgotten artefacts to ruinous follies. Meet at western end adjacent Shandon Boat Club, The Marina at 6.30pm, no booking required.

Cork’s Marina was originally called the Navigation Wall; in essence it was a guidance or tracking wall to bring ships into Cork city’s South Docks area. It was completed in 1761.

Following the constitution of the Cork Harbour Commissioners in 1814 and their introduction of steam dredging, a vigorous programme of river and berth deepening, quay and wharf building commenced. The dredger of the Cork Harbour Commissioners deposited the silt from the river into wooden barges, which were then towed ashore. The silt was re-deposited behind the Navigation Wall.

During the Great Famine, the deepening of the river created jobs for 1,000 men who worked on widening the physical dock of the Navigation Wall. In essence a fine road was constructed, which linked into Cork’s South Docks. To give an aesthetic to the new road, a fine row of elm trees was planted around 1856 by Professor Edmund Murphy of Queen’s College Cork (now UCC). The elm trees were part of a crop and tree growing experiment.

In late 2023, construction of the new Marina Promenade started and finished in late 2024, delivering a 5.5 metre wide pedestrian and cycle corridor complemented by adjoining plazas, connections to Marina Park and other features.

Saturday 23 August: Cork South Docklands - Discover the history of the city’s docks, from quayside stories to the City Park Race Course and Albert Road. Meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road at 6.30pm.

Ever since Viking age over 1,000 years ago, boats of all different shapes and sizes have been coming in and out of Cork’s riverine and harbour region continuing a very long legacy of trade. Port trade was the engine in Cork’s development.

Two hundred years ago, considerable tonnage could navigate the North Channel, as far as St Patrick’s Bridge, and on the South Channel as far as Parliament Bridge. St Patrick’s Bridge and Merchants’ Quay were the busiest areas, being almost lined daily with shipping. Near the extremity of the former on Penrose Quay was situated the splendid building of the Cork Steamship Company, whose boats loaded and discharged their alongside the quay.

In the late 1800s, the port of Cork was the leading commercial port of Ireland. The export of pickled pork, bacon, butter, corn, porter, and spirits was considerable. The manufactures of the city were brewing, distilling and coach-building, which were all carried on extensively. There were many large establishments in the timber trade, also many in which salt provisions were cured, and several tanneries, which produced leather of the choicest quality. There were also some salt, lime and chemical works.

Sunday 24 August: The Lough and its Curiosities. Meet at green area at northern green of The Lough, entrance of Lough Road to The Lough, Lough Church end at 6.30pm.

This walking tour explores the Lough and its heritage and the rich surrounding history of this neighbourhood of the city. One of the most prominent projects of which information has survived was the near £5,000 spent from the American White Cross fund. It was spent on the landscaping of The Lough during the summer and autumn of 1921.

Nineteenth century maps of The Lough show the varied shapes of the natural spring lake, whose volume could grow and substract depending on the rain. It was also riddled with a build-up of mud and overgrowth extending beyond its island birdlife island.

The 1921 works programme involved removing a depth of mud from four to ten feet deep in some places exposing the lake’s gravel bed. During the summer and autumn of 1921, forty to fifty men were employed in the work per week, and in the short time, they removed hundreds of tons of mud.

Apart from the removal of layers of mud, several other features were pursued – the reclaiming of ground to enable a playground for children, consolidating the immediate path around the Lough by providing kerbing on the edge of the Lough, creating an outside path twenty metres from the water’s edge as well as cutting small canals through the wildlife island to facilitate the further shelter of birdlife.

It is all of the latter landscaping that has created the modern look of The Lough today.