It’s strange. You can live in a certain place for years and years, possibly your entire life, and yet there will still be locations in that particular place that you’ve never set foot in, due to a variety of possible reasons. There are still quite a few places like that for me in Cork, from the Lough to generally a lot of locations on the South Side of the city. One of the biggest such omissions in my almost ten years in the rebel city has always been Marina Park. Stretching along a kilometre of the River Lee’s southern banks between the South Docks and Blackrock, the area always fascinated me, yet I somehow never managed to get there. Well, on January 3rd, 2022, that finally changed. After a thoroughly wet and windy Christmas and New Year’s here in Ireland, I had enough of being stuck in my place and decided to head and take advantage of both the good weather and the recently refurbished TFI Bikes.
History
But before I go into details about my exploits, what actually is Marina Park? What makes it so special? Well, let’s go right back to the beginning, which I’ve been told is a good place to start. Like so many things here in Cork, the Marina wasn’t really planned as such, and came about more by accident. Up until the middle of the 1700s, the area now known as the Marina was nothing more than an expanse of low-lying waterlogged marshland, similar to much of what the city centre used to be as well, intercut with side channels of the River Lee. Things began to change in 1761. Work had steadily progressed on reclaiming what is now Cork city centre and the number of trading vessels calling at Cork was steadily increasing. In an attempt to ease navigation up the Lee towards the city docks, construction began on a Navigation Wall, essentially a fixed navigation aid, which was completed in 1761. This wall had the main purpose of preventing ships from running aground in the marshes on the south bank.
Things remained relatively unchanged until the the Cork Harbour Commissioners, which had been formed in 1815 introduced steam-powered dredgers on the Lee to keep the navigation channels open for the newer and larger steam ships that started appearing from the 1830s onwards. The silt brought up by these dredgers was dumped behind the Navigation Wall, which saw that area slowly begin to rise above the marshes and turn into actual usable ground. Dredging increased during the 1840s and plans were hatched to turn the area into a large park, though this was scuppered by the Great Famine. One project that was seen through was the widening and smoothing out of the Navigation Wall, effectively turning it into a wide road. Well, wide by the standards of the time anyway. Elm trees were planted on either side of this road in 1856, creating the ensemble we see today. What is now known as Atlantic Pond also started its life in those days, originally as nothing more than a holding basin for water streaming into the Marina area during high tides. Though it was subsequently landscaped and given a more natural look, it is still fully artificial. As for the name Marina, this was adopted in 1872, taking its lead from a similar reclamation project that had recently been completed in Palermo, Sicily.
Originally, the Marina was much larger than what we see today. A large part of what is now the industrial wasteland of the Marina Commercial Park used to be part of the site. The area now known as Marina Commercial Park was originally developed in 1869 as a horse racing track called the Cork City Park Race Course. It was the establishment of this Racecourse that gave the area one of its most recognisable features, the undulating road layout, as its construction required the rerouting of the Cork, Blackrock & Passage West Railway. After this railway ceased operation in 1932, its track was rebuilt as a road, which is now called Monahan Road, as well as a pedestrian walkway that extends through Blackrock to Mahon and beyond. The racecourse area was redeveloped in 1917, though its access road survives today as Centre Park Road. It was replaced by a factory owned by the son of emigrants who had left Cork in the previous century to start a new life in the US, one Henry Ford. The development of the Ford factory from a tractor plant to a full car factory also saw the extension of the docks along the south side of the river and the conversion of much of the western end of the Marina into the industrial landscape we see today.
The Marina Today
This industrial park is all that is left of the Ford Factory nowadays, forming the centrepiece of acres of prime industrial wasteland which separate the Marina from the city centre and leave it as a small sliver of riverside land squeezed in between itself on the western edge and the affluent suburb of Blackrock on its eastern end. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that the Marina is further subdivided by the looming presence of Pairc Úi Chaoimh, Cork’s primary GAA stadium, which was recently redeveloped. The existence of the Commercial Park and the fact that the South Docks are still used as an active port facility are also the reason why I never really managed to make it to the Marina. The prospect of walking through an active industrial area, or even cycling on a road regularly used by heavy lorries just isn’t that appealing. It was only the combination of the opening of two one way cycle lanes, an outbound one along Centre Park Road and an inbound one along Monahan Road, together with the rejuvenation of the Cork Bike Share system that really opened the Park up to me. Add to that the fact that The first phase of a multi-year regeneration project for Marina Park was only recently completed, and I finally had a reason to check out the area… only for the weather to turn sour and produce probably the wettest and windiest Christmas & New Year’s I’ve seen in quite some time. Yeah, thanks for nothing!
Well, on January 3rd the weather finally turned and I decided to take advantage of this surprisingly dry and sunny day in January (Now there3’s a combination you don’t hear too often) to take advantage of the situation.
Impressions
The new bike lanes really make a massive difference in opening up the Marina to the city. From Grand Parade, I was able to cycle continuously on segregated bike lanes all the way to the beginning of the Marina. It remains to be seen how long this will continue to be the case given the apparently imminent redevelopment of the entire Docklands area here in Cork. All that being said however, the outbound lane is far more pleasant than the inbound lane along Monaghan Road. Anyway, the final stretch of Centre Park Road takes you straight onto the Marina, with on being the operative word here, as the roadway of the Marina is a surprising amount higher than the area behind it.
Speaking of the Marina roadway, what the hell is going on with the road surface there? No, really? When I was a kid in the early 1990s, my family moved from Hamburg to Prague. The drive took us through East Germany and down the A13 Autobahn between Berlin and Dresden, a horrific piece of infrastructure at the time, with deep ruts, cracks and potholes on and between the concrete slabs of the roadway, large enough to ruin even the hardy Lada Samara of my dad, let alone any “regular” car. I get the same vibes from the Marina. Make no mistake, the Marina is in bad shape and cycling along it is no fun at all. It is completely beyond me how anyone could have objected to the pedestrianisation of this stretch of road, given that the surface is likely to shred most car suspensions in relatively short order! Then again, those who opposed it probably either weren’t local or were driving the type of child crusher SUVs that can handle this type of road condition.
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| The road surface on the Marina is absolutely atrocious! The rest of the "old park" isn't much better, it's just loads of trees that obscure any view towards some of the gems that are supposedly hidden in this park. |
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| Areas like this, where the tree cover is lighter, are few and far between and even then, the vistas they reveal are often unkempt and in disrepair. |
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| At least the area is obviously popular. And pedestrianising the Marina was definitely the right choice. |
Another thing that struck me was just in what a poor shape the Marina is in overall. There are almost no signs indicating what is where, or where certain side paths leave, making navigation a hassle for anyone not from the area. Overgrown clearings and dense clusters of trees further reduce visibility of other areas within the park. Only the riverside is clearly visible. This is exacerbated by a general lack of infrastructure in the area, from the aforementioned signs to toilets or even benches. The entire area just screams civic disinterest! This isn’t helped by links between the “old” park and the newer sections that can best be described as tenuous, mostly made up of narrow concrete footpaths and rickety bridges.
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| Views such as this, from the Marina across Atlantic Pond to Pair Úi Chaoimh, are few and far between due to the overgrown nature of most of the area. |
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| The views over the river are spectacular though. Well, at least as spectacular as any view can be on a day in January here in Ireland. |
One positive side of the Marina, apart from some rather sweeping views over the river, is how quickly you end up at Blackrock Pier. I love this little spot, especially since it gives a port head like me a nice view over Tivoli Container Terminal. The whole area would be even better if it wasn’t being abused as a free car park by a stampeding horde of microbrains and absolute bellends!
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| I just love the views from Blackrock Pier, whether it's down the river... |
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| ... or across to Tivoli. |
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| If only those motorised morons wouldn't block up seemingly every single square metre of free surface! |
After doing my best Otis Redding impression and sitting on the dock of a bay for a while, it was time to check out the new section of Marina Park. Colour me impressed! It is almost the complete opposite of the eastern sections of the park: Modern, spacious, with open fields of view, though Pairc Úi Chaoimh dominates the scenery, as you would expect. I can understand why some people might consider it barren but as someone who is prone to a bit of claustrophobia, this openness is really a blessing. The same cannot be said for that red contraption they called “Central Hall” though. I know it’s supposed to represent the old show grounds of the Munster Agricultural Society but the only thing that contraption symbolises is that some ideas are best left in the architects renders. Seriously, the thing looked like the builders just ran out of money halfway through, packed up and left. They even left some shipping containers!
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| When it comes to Marina Park, there's obviously a stadium shaped elephant in the room in the shape of Pairc Úi Chaoimh. As much as I like the architecture of the redesign, there's no denying that Cork GAA has not been an honest party in this redesign at all. |
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| There are certainly quite a few bike stands around! |
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| Can someone tell me just what the architects of the remodelling of Marina Park were smoking when they came up with THAT??? |
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| The open design of this part of the Park makes this red contraption clearly visible from all angles! |
I absolutely love the landscaping though, especially the newly rerouted and landscaped waterway with its island and “bridge to nowhere” that just peters out. In general though, the park has a lot of features that seem a lot more thought out than it first appears. I’m not too sure about the use of concrete for the bridges and banks of the waterway though, it’s already gathering moss & algae and could look pretty bad a few years down the line. All in all, it’s a nice addition though and makes me curious about how the rest of the park will turn out. There’s also ample bike parking around the new section of the park and I had no problem with tying up my trusty TFI Bikes steed for a little while while I explored the new park. This is all the more welcome as the GAA continues to shit all over the conditions imposed on them as part of the planning permission for the remodelling of Pairc Úi Chaoimh and refuses to install the requisite amount of bike parking on the stadium site.
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| I really like the landscaping though |
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| Does anyone know the name of this little river? I couldn't find it on any map. |
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| I absolutely love this "bridge to nowhere" that just peters out on a landscaped island in the river. |
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| I'm less sure about the use of concrete as a material for the banks, as it will surely just turn green with algae over time. Then again, what material DO you use? it's dammed if you do, dammed if you don't, and yes, that was intentional! |
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| Seemingly the only ones not bothered in the slightest by the redesign are the local swans. This one was absolutely unflappable, although those kids were definitely playing with fire trying to provoke him. |
The cycle back to Grand Parade isn’t quite as enjoyable as the cycle out, especially the parts on Monahan Road. This is mostly due to two things, the first being an absolute clusterfuck of an exit from the park to the Monahan Road cycle lane, and the second being the weird layout at the intersection between Monahan Road with Victoria Road and the Centre Park Road roundabout. I’m not sure I can even blame the city council too much for that, given the pre-existing road layout at that latter location. If there is a better way to solve that particular issue, I’ve jet to reach the requisite level of mind-altering substances in my bloodstream to see it. Once beyond that, things get a whole lot easier, and once I’m back on South Mall it’s basically like on a highway. The whole round-trip ended up costing me 1.50€ in TFI Bikes rental fees. Not bad for almost two hours!
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| These new cycle lanes are really a godsend, both for my commute and for recreation, such as this trip to Marina Park. |
Conclusion
Marina Park really is a Tale of two Parks. The older section is definitely showing its age. Its state of repair leaves quite a bit to be desired and also makes it hard to navigate unless you already know the area. There is a definite lack of infrastructure in the older section, which further detracts from the experience, not to mention the quality of the roadway. Having said that, the views along the river are spectacular and make the trip worth it in their own right. The new section, while still a bit barren, has a lot of interesting ideas incorporated into its design. It’s pretty clear that it will need to grow into some of these ideas, especially when it comes to tree cover which is currently sparse, to put it diplomatically. Oh, and for crying out loud, tear down that Central Hall!!! In general though, the entire park is definitely worth a trip and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the next few phases of the redesign of the park will look like.
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