County: Cork Site name: Castlepark
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08D087; 08R282
Author: Edward Pollard, The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd, Brehon House, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: 19th-century Admiralty anchor and landing place
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 564335m, N 549496m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.696732, -8.515915
Underwater visual assessment, intertidal foreshore inspection and a metal detection survey took place in advance of a proposed slipway development project at Castlepark Marina in Kinsale Harbour, Co. Cork. The wider receiving environment bears witness to Bronze Age to post-medieval period settlements and shipwrecks. Castlepark would have served as a landing place for estuary traffic, a 17th-century star-shaped fort and a small settlement. The area is cited in the events surrounding an invasion by the Spanish in 1601. Today the area retains 19th-century slipways, a seawall, mooring hooks, quays and a pier, which are features of the area’s maritime heritage. The slipways vary in that they are used at different stages of the tide for ferry landing. A third, smaller, slipway is associated with a foreshore access path. Drains, sewers or pipe remains are also present along the seawall and cliff. An Admiralty anchor dated to the 19th century was observed below the low water mark.
