The Marina
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The Marina was once one of Europe's finest walks. It stretched from the city centre right down to Blackrock village. It once had a double row of elm trees,it had its boathouses, its regatta quay, its bandhouse and, of course, its beautiful river scenery. But how did The Marina come about? Therein lies an interesting story.
In 1758 the business community of the city decided to build a four foot thick wall (a navigation wall) from the city all the way down to Blackrock village. The wall was built in an attempt to prevent the river channel from silting up and from being choked with mud. Dredgers were used to remove the mud from the river bed and throw it over the navigation wall into the slob land on the other side. The Atlantic Pond was at this time just a swamp. Small boys from Blackrock would walk all the way up to the city on the navigation wall and this was often tricky at that time if you met someone coming in the opposite direction. Sometime around 1800 men were employed to fill in all the marshy land inside the wall with the mud and silt which had been removed from the river bed. Gradually the Marina, as we know it today,began to take shape. With the coming of the Ford Motor Company to Cork, the "right of way" along The Marina from Blackrock to the City was halted. Now, as in the Mardyke, Dutch Elm diseases has destroyed the fine old trees. It would have been very difficult for citizens of old Cork to visualise the train from Cork to Blackrock passing along the Marina crowded with passengers moving through land that was once just swamp and slob land.
The
beautiful Marina has, down through the years, provided the people of Cork with
many beautiful days and many glorious memories of rowing and regattas, of hurling
and football matches, of horse racing in the nearby City Race Track and of leisurely
summer strolls under its canopy of leafy elms.