Bastioned fort

The National Monuments Service's description

On the highest part of a promontory which projects on the W side of Kinsale harbour. This seventeenth-century bastioned fort was built on the site of a tower named 'Castle Parks' where was 'a small structure of no great strength', shown on the map of 1587 (Hayes-McCoy 1964, 25). This was occupied and further strengthened by the Spanish in 1601 (O'Sullivan 1916, 47). After the Battle of Kinsale work began, in February 1602, on a 'pentagonal bastioned work designed by Paul Ives' (Kerrigan 1980, 15), which was not completed until October 1604 (Hayes-McCoy 1964, 33) at a cost of £675 (O'Sullivan 1916, 99). It was in need of repairs by 1611 when the defences were improved and an inner fort built (Gowen 1979, 257). It was repaired again in 1677 (ibid., 257-9), and captured by Williamite forces in October 1690 (see CO125-034----; Kerrigan 1980, 15; Gowen 1979, 259).

The defences are described in detail by Gowen (ibid., 259-63), as comprised of five earthen bastions on the angles of a pentagon, linked by straight curtain walls, enclosing an area of c. 100m by c. 120m. An external ditch is evident on the W, N and E sides (max. Wth 15m). The landward bastions (to the SW) are larger than the other three; part of the stone facing survives on this side. Mid-way along the S curtain are the remains of a gate-house and of the revetment for a drawbridge. Centrally placed within is a square fort, enclosing an area c. 30m by c. 40m, with demi-bastions on each corner. The wall is pierced by gun loops and backed by earthen banks. Inside are two diametrically opposed towers with gun loops, between which are three gabled buildings forming a quadrangle. From the ditch at the NE corner of the inner fort, a covered way leads to a vaulted sally port beside the NE bastion of the outer fort, and then NE to the blockhouse (CO112-083---) on the shoreline.

This is a National Monument in State Guardianship (no. 525).

See summary of excavations:
https://excavations.ie/report/2003/Cork/0009635/
https://excavations.ie/report/1998/Cork/0003255/
See also O'Donnell, M. 2002: Excavations at James Fort, Kinsale, 1974-98. JCHAS 107, 1-70.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Photographs attached
CO112-036----_01: Aerial view from S.
CO112-036----_02: View of internal fort, from W.

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

References

Gowen, M. 1979 Irish artillery fortifications 1550-1700. Unpublished MA thesis, University College, Cork.

O'Sullivan, F. 1916 (new edition 1976) ThehHistory of Kinsale. Cork. Tower Books.

Hayes-McCoy, G.A. (ed.) 1964 Ulster and other Irish maps, c. 1600. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Kerrigan, P.M. 1980-82 Seventeenth-century fortifications, forts and garrisons in Ireland: a prelliminary list. The Irish Sword 14, no. 54, 3-24, no. 55, 135-56.