Official Opening of Haulbowline Island Recreational Amenity
The Haulbowline Island Recreational Amenity in the heart of Cork Harbour was officially opened by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Gillian Coughlan, Minister for Defence Simon Coveney and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath. In the largest project of its kind to date in Ireland, the Haul-bowline Remediation by Cork County Council has trans-formed the former East Tip site into a 22-acre Peopleʼs Park in the middle of Cork Harbour. Haulbowline, home to the headquarters of the Irish Naval Service, was also formerly the location of Irelandʼs only steelworks from 1939 until its closure in 2001. 650,000 cu-bic metres of by-products from the steel production was deposited here over a 40-year period. The extensive remediation of the site saw the delivery onto the island of over 15,000 HGV loads of material, 47,000 tonnes of rock armour material to protect the shoreline, 180,000 tonnes of subsoil and 37,000 tonnes of topsoil, transforming the site into the scenic landscaped recrea-tional amenity it is today. Complete with 4kms of fully accessible pathways, a 1 km jogging circuit, playing pitches and seating areas that lend themselves to remarkable views of the harbour and wildlife observation, the island has hundreds of native tree mixes and plants to promote biodiversity.
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