Whitegate () is a small village in

East Cork East Cork lies in south-west Ireland, in Ireland's largest county, County Cork. The term "East Cork" is used in tourism, sporting and other contexts, and is the name given to one of eight municipal districts of Cork County Council. East Cork c ...

on the eastern shore of

Cork Harbour Cork Harbour () is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee (Ireland), 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 ...

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It lies within the

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

s of Ballincarroonig and Corkbeg. Whitegate is within the Cork East Dáil constituency. The ruins of a 14th-century or 15th-century church lie in the grounds of Corkbeg churchyard close to Whitegate village. The current

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

parish church was built within the same churchyard in 1881. Once a fishing port and known for lace-making, during the 20th-century Whitegate became the location for Ireland's only

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

. This facility,

Whitegate refinery The Whitegate refinery, near Whitegate, County Cork, is Ireland's only oil refinery. It has a capacity of 75,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), sufficient to provide 40 percent of Ireland's fuel requirements. It was commissioned in 1959 and was ...

, was built on Corkbeg Island on one side of Whitegate Bay and has been owned by

Irving Oil Irving Oil Ltd. is a Canadian privately owned intergenerational gasoline, oil, and natural gas producing and exporting company, a subsidiary of the parent company Irving Group of Companies, one of the largest "private conglomerates" in North Amer ...

since 2016.

Aghada Aghada () is a village and civil parish in County Cork, Ireland. It is situated on the eastern side of Cork Harbour, around 12 km by road south of Midleton. The civil parish of Aghada consists of several small villages and townlands inclu ...

Power Generating plant lies on the other side of the bay. The writer William Wall grew up here, though his home, then vacant, was destroyed in a fire in 2008 in a suspected arson attack.

Trabolgan Holiday Village Trabolgan (, meaning 'strand of Bolgan') is a self catering holiday village on a site which was a former country estate in the civil parish of Trabolgan, County Cork, Ireland. 'Trabolgan: A corker of a weekend' (''Irish Independent'', 22 Augu ...

is located nearby.

Historic estates

The

Hiberno-Norman Norman Irish or Hiberno-Normans (; ) is a modern term for the descendants of Norman settlers who arrived during the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. Most came from England and Wales. They are distinguished from the native ...

FitzGerald Fitzgerald may refer to: People * Fitzgerald (surname), a surname * Fitzgerald Hinds, Trinidadian politician * Fitzgerald Toussaint (born 1990), former American football running back Place Australia * Fitzgerald River National Park, a nati ...

family (a sub-branch of the Desmond Geraldines that owned Corkbeg and Lisquinlan), were landowners in the area. Following a marriage between the FitzGerald and Uniacke families, ownership of lands at Corkbeg and Whitegate transferred to Col Robert Uniacke. After marrying Helena FitzGerald, Robert Uniacke assumed the name and arms of the FitzGeralds. Ultimately Uniacke Fitzgerald's nephew, another Col

Robert Uniacke Fitzgerald Colonel Robert Uniacke-FitzGerald (17 March 1751 – 20 December 1814) was an Irish politician. He was the eldest son of Robert Uniacke (afterwards Fitzgerald) of Corkbeg and descended from the Munster Desmond FitzGerald Knights of Glin and ...

, built a

great house A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...

on the estate lands. The Corkbeg and Lisquinlan estates were later willed to Sir Robert Uniacke-Penrose-FitzGerald 1st Bt of Corkbeg and Lisquinlan who died 1919 without issue. Whitegate House, dating from c.1780, still stands at Whitegate.

References

{{Authority control Towns and villages in County Cork

Historic estates

See also

References