| Crookhaven An Cruachán
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| — Town — | |
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Crookhaven
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Cork |
| Area | |
| • Town | 2.57 km2 (1 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 11 m (36 ft) |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Urban | 240 |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | V805255 |
| Website | www.crookhaven.ie |
Crookhaven (Irish: An Cruachán) is a village in County Cork, Ireland, on the most southwestern tip of Ireland. A winter population of about forty swells in the summer to about four hundred with the occupants of the many holiday homes arriving.
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The village was an important port of call for shipping between Europe and the United States, and many inhabitants were in the business of supplying the ships as they sheltered in Crookhaven after or before a long voyage. In 1959 Crookhaven was the subject of a film by English film maker James Clarke in his film Irish Village. At that time the film records the population of the town and local farms as being 69.
Crookhaven was one location where Guglielmo Marconi did a lot of experiments with his interest in wireless communication and his experiments in ship-to-shore communication. In fact, most of his work was done between the Fastnet lighthouse, Crookhaven, and Cape Clear Island, since they were so closely connected. This was a great location for him because there was a telegraph line connecting Crookhaven and Cape Clear Island, which was located eighty miles away. Marconi did work here from 1901 until 1914, when he sold the rights. The station was ultimately destroyed in 1922. [1].
The village has three pubs. O'Sullivans faces the harbour and its walls are adorned with historical pictures of the village and notes about the area.
Nottages (or The Welcome Inn) is only open during the summer. The pub was once owned by a Mr Nottage - an English gentleman who came to the village to work at the Marconi signal station.
The last pub is The Crookhaven Inn. The pub building today was once the bottle store for the larger pub and hotel located across the road. When the original building was converted to flats, the bottle store was converted.
The village also has a shop and post office located next to O'Sullivans.
The road to the village comes from Goleen and curves around the harbour. As one drives from Goleen, one passes a road to the left leading onto Rock Island. Originally this was the site of a coast guard station - which replaced an earlier station to its south. The "new" station was occupied from 1907 until 1921. During the height of the War of Independence, British Marines were stationed there to protect the station and Brow Head War Signal Station. During their occupation, the I.R.A. destroyed Brow Head. Also on Rock Island was a fishery plant. From here most of the shellfish of Ireland was exported to Europe. The ponds were open until the late 1970s, then it became a food processing plant packaging garlic butter and mussels but is now derelict.
The village is located in south-western Ireland, 132 kilometres (82 mi) from Cork and 383 kilometres (238 mi) from Dublin. The nearest airport to Crookhaven is Cork Airport, and closest regional road is the R591.
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