Cove Fort, County Cork

Cove Fort is a small bastioned land battery to the east of Cobh in County Cork, Ireland. Built as a coastal defence fortification in 1743,[1] on instruction of the then Vice-Admiral of the Coast,[2][3] it replaced a number of temporary coastal artillery batteries which defended Cork Harbour.[4]

Cove Fort
Near Cobh in Cork Harbour in Ireland
Plan and elevation of Cove Fort from a 1777 survey by Charles Vallancey
Cove Fort
Coordinates51.8518°N 8.2771°W / 51.8518; -8.2771
TypeCoastal defence fortification
Area2.5 acres
Site information
Open to
the public		Partial
Primary usesLand battery, barracks, military hospital
Site history
Built1743 (1743)
In useUntil 19th century (as battery & barracks), 20th century (as hospital)

The seaward fortifications included a demi-bastioned frontage with three tiers of gun emplacements commanding the harbour's main shipping channel and defending the naval yards at Haulbowline.[5][6] While the landward walls included musketry flanking-galleries,[4] later 18th century reports criticised the fact that the fort was overlooked by higher ground to the rear and that planned landward bastion defences had not been built. A 1763 report recorded the fort as having a number of 24-pounder long guns,[4] and a later survey by Charles Vallancey records a small detachment of Royal Irish Artillery at the site.[4] By 1811 there were 20 or more 24-pounder guns in place.[7]

In the 19th century the harbour's other defences were expanded at Fort Westmoreland (Spike Island), Fort Carlisle (Whitegate), and Fort Camden (Crosshaven), and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars Cove Fort came to house a naval and military hospital.[4][8] By the 1830s the site was largely given-over to this use, and though used as a barracks, was no longer used primarily for battery defence.[9] The "Queenstown Military Hospital" remained in operation until after World War I.

The area of the fort now houses a Port of Cork operations building and harbour pilot station, and is the site of a park (Bishop Roche Park), and the Cobh Titanic Memorial Garden.[10][11] The latter includes a glass structure which has been engraved with the names of the 123 passengers who boarded at Cobh – RMS Titanic's last port of call.[12] The memorial garden has a line-of-sight to the last anchorage point of the Titanic, close to Roche's Point at the mouth of the harbour.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Buildings of Ireland – Cove Fort". National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  2. Liam Nolan; John E. Nolan (2009). Secret Victory: Ireland and the War at Sea, 1914–1918. Mercier Press. p. 16. ISBN 9781856356213.
  3. "Bishop Roche Park / Cove Fort". Visitor information signage at the fort. Cobh Town Council / Fáilte Ireland / NDP. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  4. Paul M. Kerrigan (1995). Castles and fortifications in Ireland, 1485–1945. Collins Press. pp. 136 & 193. ISBN 1898256128.
  5. Martin Marix Evans (1998). The Military Heritage of Britain & Ireland. p. 218. ISBN 9780233991504.
  6. George Holmes (1797). Sketches of the Southern Counties of Ireland. p. 167.
  7. Colonel K. W. Maurice-Jones (19 April 2012). The History of Coast Artillery in the British Army. p. 105. ISBN 9781781491157.
  8. "Notes on the History of Haulbowline". The Irish Sword. Military History Society of Ireland. VII: 30. 1965.
  9. Samuel Lewis (1837). A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. p. 415. ISBN 9780806310633.
  10. "Cobh to honour Titanic passengers". Cork Independent. 10 April 2014.
  11. "Titanic memorial garden to open in Cobh". Irish Examiner. 7 April 2014.
  12. "Titanic Memorial Garden opens in Cobh". TheCork.ie. 11 April 2014.
  13. "Cobh Titanic Memorial Garden". VisitCobh.com. 25 April 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2015. Situated within Cove Fort, the newly opened garden [...] overlooks the final anchorage of RMS Titanic at the mouth of Cork Harbour
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