Little Island,

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 ...

, is a civil parish and mainly industrial area to the east of

Cork city Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's ...

in Ireland. It is no longer an island, since the northern channel separating it from the mainland has filled over. To the west and south is Lough Mahon, part of

Cork Harbour Cork Harbour () is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" (after Port Ja ...

; across a channel to the east is Fota Island. Little Island is within the Dáil constituency of Cork North-Central.

History

The parish of Little Island dates to the seventh century, and

tidal mills A tide mill is a water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. A dam with a sluice is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers o ...

have been excavated dating to c. 630 AD. By the fourteenth century the parish was known as ''De Insula'', meaning "of the island".

Henry Purdon Henry Purdon (–1737) was an Irish barrister, politician and Law Officer of the early eighteenth century. He sat in the Irish House of Commons and held the Crown office of Third Serjeant.Hart p.179 Purdon was born in County Cork, to a junior ...

, MP for Charleville, lived here in the eighteenth century. The current Church of Ireland parish church was built in 1865 in the Gothic Revival style. A limestone quarry on Little Island was the source of thousands of tons of limestone annually, which were used in the construction of public buildings nationally, including Cork's

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually house ...

and

Holy Trinity Church Holy Trinity Church may refer to: Albania * Holy Trinity Church (Berat), Berat County * Holy Trinity Church, Lavdar, Opar, Korçë County Armenia * Holy Trinity Church, Yerevan Australia * Garrison Church, Sydney, South Wales, also known as ...

. Ancient protected structures, as recorded on the Record of Monuments and Places, include examples of fulacht fiadh, middens, corn-drying kilns, the remains of a medieval church and graveyard, and the 15th or 16th century tower house known locally as Wallingstown Castle.

Development

A number of Cork's pharmaceutical companies are based on the island. The main drainage wastewater treatment plant for Cork City was also opened in the area in 2004. Since the 1990s, development has grown, with retail and commercial spaces opened at Little Island Business Park and East Gate Retail Park. As of 2017, the Little Island Business Association reported that there were approximately one thousand businesses operating in the area. Over seven thousand people were employed in the area, which was described as one of Ireland's "industrial powerhouses," as of April 2018. Cork Golf Club is also based on Little Island.

Transport

The N25 Cork– Rosslare road is built on the infilled channel between Little Island and Glounthaune. The R623 is an area loop road from the N25. The Cork–

Cobh Cobh ( ,), known from 1849 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. With a population of around 13,000 inhabitants, Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour and home to Ireland's ...

railway line skirts the island to the north and west. It includes Little Island railway station, which opened on 10 November 1859. It has direct rail services to Cork,

and

Midleton Midleton (; , meaning "monastery at the weir") is a town in south-eastern County Cork, Ireland. It lies approximately 16 km east of Cork City on the Owenacurra River and the N25 road, which connects Cork to the port of Rosslare. A satellit ...

Townlands

Townlands A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

of Little Island include Ballytrasna, Carrigrenan, Castleview, Clashavodig, Courtstown, Harper's Island and Wallingstown.

References

{{Cork Harbour , state=collapsed Geography of County Cork Former islands of Ireland Civil parishes of County Cork