Finally! It was announced at Cork County Council Municipal District meeting on Monday the 21st of December that the new grassland park on Haulbowline Island is going to open.
Cork County County signed the lease on Friday the 18th of December and it comes into effect on the 1st of January 2021. It is expected that the park will open to the public in early 2021.
This park was originally supposed to open in May 2019 but got delayed with the wrangling between various state bodies.
The new park is located alongside the Haulbowline Naval Base in the middle of Cork Harbour and directly opposite the town of Cobh.
The image below shows an aerial view from 2019 or so...
As you can see, there is a car park on the bottom left and there are a number of walking / running trails within the park. The outer trail makes for a 1km loop so it's wouldn't be so hard for someone to do a short walk/run of 5k or so by doing multiple loops.
While there are some trees on the site, it is in a very exposed location in the middle of the harbour.
Parkrun?... As with any new park, the question that arises is if a 5k parkrun could be held there? It might be possible to include some smaller loops but I presume the minimum number of big loops for a 5k would be four.
The nearest 'town' as such is Ringaskiddy which is pretty small. The nearest large population areas are Carrigaline, Passage West and the south-east of Cork City.
Cobh of course is just across the water but there is no direct ferry service. There is always the option of coming across via the ferry at Glenbrook.
The one large 'population centre' is of course the naval base itself. It's not hard to imagine getting enough runners for a weekly parkrun.
A children's 2k parkrun could certainly could fit there but that would mean everyone driving there.
Road Race?... It's also not hard to imagine some sort of 5k race being held there. Start in Ringaskiddy... down the road to the new park... do one loop and back again. There would be very little traffic on the road so it might be an option.
Whatever about the various options for events, it's good to see a new public park in the Cork Harbour area.
Previous posts...
New Public Park in Haulbowline in Cork Harbour ...Sept 2018
Work continues on new park on Haulbowline Island ... Oct 2018
Latest update on the Haulbowline Island works ... March 2019
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