Crookhaven () is a village in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, on the most southwestern tip of the

island of Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. With an out-of-season population of about sixty, it swells in the summer season to about four hundred, when the occupants of the seasonal holiday homes arrive.

History

The village name is attributed to an association with the Crooke family, and initially with Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet who also founded

Baltimore, County Cork Baltimore (, ; , translated as the "Fort of the Jewels") is a village in western County Cork, Ireland. It is the main village in the parish of Rathmore and the Islands, the southernmost parish in Ireland. It is the main ferry port to Sherkin Isla ...

about 1610. The Crooke family were granted large estates in West Cork in the early 17th century, but their association with the area ended around 1665, on the death of Sir Thomas's son and heir Sir Samuel. In the late 1500s and early 1600s the village was used as a base for piracy - where not only the local justices (including the vice-admiral of

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

) but the broader population were involved. These activities were unaffected by official discouragement under King

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

, but the Dutch attack on Crookhaven in 1614 did significant damage and English piracy in the region declined thereafter. The village was an important port of call for

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...

between

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and many inhabitants were in the business of supplying the ships as they sheltered in Crookhaven after or before a long voyage. In 1959 Crookhaven was the subject of a film by English film maker James Clarke in his film ''Irish Village''. At that time the film records the population of the town and local farms as being 69. Crookhaven was also used by

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...

as a location for experiments in wireless communication and ship-to-shore communication. Some of these tests and experiments took place between the Fastnet lighthouse, Crookhaven, and Cape Clear Island - since they were so closely connected. The area was useful for these purposes as a fixed telegraph line also connected Crookhaven and Cape Clear Island - located eight miles away. Marconi worked here from 1901 until 1914 when he sold the rights. The station was ultimately destroyed in 1922.

Amenities

The village has three pubs. O'Sullivans faces the

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

and its walls are adorned with historical pictures of the village and notes about the area. Nottage's (or ''The Welcome Inn'') is only open during the summer. The pub was once owned by a Mr Nottage, who came to the village from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to work at the Marconi

signal station A signal station is a form of Aids to Navigation that is defined by the IHO simply as "A signal station is a place on shore from which signals are made to ships at sea". While this broad definition would include coastal radio stations and fog signa ...

. The third pub is ''The Crookhaven Inn''. The pub building today was once the bottle store for the larger pub and hotel located across the road. When the original building was converted to flats, the bottle store was converted. The village also has a shop and post office located next to O'Sullivans. As with certain other amenities, the Crookhaven Harbour Sailing Club also only opens in the summer.

Places of interest

The road to the village comes from

Goleen Goleen () is a small rural village in County Cork on the south-western tip of Ireland. Farming, tourism and construction work are among the main occupations of the local people. Location Goleen is located towards the south-western end of the ...

and curves around the harbour. As one drives from Goleen, one passes a road to the left leading onto Rock Island. Originally this was the site of a

coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

station - which replaced an earlier station to its south. The "new" station was occupied from 1907 until 1921. During the height of the

War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List of o ...

, British Marines were stationed there to protect the station and Brow Head War Signal Station. During their occupation, the IRA destroyed Brow Head. Also on Rock Island was a fishery plant. From here most of the

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

of Ireland was exported to Europe. The ponds were open until the late 1970s, then it became a food processing plant packaging

garlic butter Garlic butter, also known as ''beurre à la bourguignonne'', is a compound butter used as a flavoring for many dishes or as a condiment.''Larousse Gastronomique'' (1961), Crown Publishers(''Translated from the French, Librairie Larousse, Paris ( ...

and

mussels Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,0 ...

- but since fell derelict.

Transport & communications

The village is located in south-western Ireland, from

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

and from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. The nearest airport to Crookhaven is

Cork Airport Cork Airport ( ga, Aerfort Chorcaí, ) is the second-largest of the three principal international airports in Ireland, after Dublin and ahead of Shannon. It is located in Cork City, south of the city centre in an area known as Farmers Cross ...

, and the regional road R591 ends in the village. Crookhaven has no scheduled public transport.

Notable people

Jeremiah Coghlan, naval captain in the

French Revolutionary The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

and

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, "an officer almost unrivaled in heroic exploits".

References

{{Lighthouse identifiers , qid2=Q28333621 Towns and villages in County Cork Tourist attractions in County Cork Pirate dens and locations