Council plans to turn former dump into adventure park...

Cork City Council have just announced that they plan to transform the former city dump into one of the country’s largest adventure, leisure, and recreation parks. The redevelopment of the former landfill on the Kinsale Rd will be one of the largest such reclamation projects in Ireland and it is hoped that it will be completed by 2018. The plan is to have 29 hectares of public open space and private land, including land around Vernon Mount House on the southern side of the South Ring Rd with a bridge over the South Ring Road connecting the two areas.

Some of the planned features are...
* A caravan and motor home park for visiting tourists;
* An all-weather site capable of hosting concerts, ice rinks, circuses, and equestrian events using flexible multi-purpose buildings;
* Indoor and outdoor adventure play centres, to include zip wires, climbing walls, luge tracks, and zorbing;
* An extreme sports trail and cross-country course;
* A network of cycle and walking trails;
* Wildlife trails and viewing platforms over wetland areas;
* Urban farming or allotments;
* An area to highlight the use of renewable energies.

Michael O’Brien, an engineer in the city council..."We hope to unveil the master plan within a few weeks and host an open-day at the park for the public in August. That will be the start of our engagement with the public on our plans to transform this site in to a huge public park."

The current plan is that the features will be rolled out in phases over the coming years subject to funding. In the meantime, it is hoped that the walking and cycling trails in the park will open to the public next year in 2013.


The 150-acre Kinsale Rd dump opened in 1965 and served as the city’s main landfill until 2009. It is estimated that up to 3m tonnes of waste have been landfilled at the EPA-licenced facility.