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The Islands of Ireland Series – Haulbowline, Co. Cork
David Mullen asks for permission to come aboard the island that’s home to the Irish naval service.
Even Haulbowline’s name seems to allude to its seafaring heritage, though it doesn’t derive from the phrase to ‘haul on the bowline’, but rather from the Old Norse ál-boling or ‘eel dwelling’.
Located in Cork Harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world (after Port Jackson on which Sydney, Australia sits, in case you were wondering), the island has long been of strategic importance.
Following the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 in which Spanish troops had landed elsewhere in County Cork, Lord Mountjoy, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, decided, in 1602, to fortify Haulbowline to defend the harbour from attack. It soon became an important base for the British Army.