64-553: The Castlepark peninsula in Kinsale harbour on the coast of County Cork , on the south coast of Ireland is really more a presque-isle than a peninsula, being joined to the mainland only by an extremely narrow neck at its north-western corner. Thus, the Castlepark peninsula is almost surrounded by water: the River Bandon , flowing from the north-west, bounds the peninsula on the north;
128-668: A bastion fort or star-shaped fort design. In 1649, Prince Rupert of the Rhine declared Charles II as King of England, Scotland and Ireland at St Multose's Church in Kinsale upon hearing of the execution of Charles I in London by Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War . The Virginia trading fleet made this harbour the safest destination during their wartime voyages. Charles Fort , located at Summer Cove and dating from 1677 in
192-527: A charter granted by King Edward III of England , the Corporation of Kinsale was established to undertake local government in the town. The corporation existed for over 500 years until the passing of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 , when local government in Kinsale was transferred to the town commissioners who had been elected in the town since 1828. These Town Commissioners became
256-473: A four-month siege , when the garrison led by general Louis François Jean Chabot , being short of provisions and having lost the key island of Vido at the entrance of the port, surrendered and was allowed passage back to France. The Military Revolution thesis originally proposed by Michael Roberts in 1955, as he focused on Sweden (1560–1660) searching for major changes in the European way of war caused by
320-525: A combined Florentine and French army. With the original medieval fortifications beginning to crumble to French cannon fire, the Pisans constructed an earthen rampart behind the threatened sector. It was discovered that the sloping earthen rampart could be defended against escalade and was also much more resistant to cannon fire than the curtain wall it had replaced. The second siege was that of Padua in 1509. A monk engineer named Fra Giocondo , trusted with
384-471: A ditch was dug in front of them. The earth used from the excavation was piled behind the walls to create a solid structure. While purpose-built fortifications would often have a brick fascia because of the material's ability to absorb the shock of artillery fire, many improvised defences cut costs by leaving this stage out and instead opting for more earth. Improvisation could also consist of lowering medieval round towers and infilling them with earth to strengthen
448-521: A formative influence on the patterning of the Renaissance ideal city : "The Renaissance was hypnotized by one city type which for a century and a half—from Filarete to Scamozzi—was impressed upon all utopian schemes: this is the star-shaped city". In the nineteenth century, the development of the explosive shell changed the nature of defensive fortifications. Elvas , in Portugal is considered by some to be
512-657: A month. Eventually it fell, but the Ottoman casualties were very high, and it bought time for the relief force which arrived from Sicily to relieve the rest of the besieged island. The star fort therefore played a crucial and decisive role in the siege. After the fall of Venice to Napoleon, Corfu was occupied in 1797 by the French republican armies. The now ancient fortifications were still of some value at this point. A Russian–Ottoman–English alliance led at sea by Admiral Ushakov and with troops sent by Ali Pasha retook Corfu in 1799 after
576-404: A number of the native Irish aristocrats, including both Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell , abandoned their lands and fled to Continental Europe . Shortly after the battle, James's Fort was built to protect the harbour. Completed by 1607, the central structure was a half-bastioned four-sided stone fortification, surrounded by pentagonal earthworks to
640-837: A purpose-built building in Church Lane and crewed by trained volunteers. Kinsale competes in the Irish Tidy Towns Competition and was the overall winner in 1986. Kinsale is the first ' Transition Town ' in Ireland, and the Transition Town community organisation, supported by Kinsale town council, holds meetings locally. It has taken some guidance from the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan 2021, which has spawned further Transition Towns worldwide. Kinsale hosts an annual jazz festival, which takes place during
704-621: A restaurant on Market/Main streets, received a Michelin Star in 2020. Chef Keith Floyd was previously a resident of Kinsale. The town forms part of the Bandon -Kinsale electoral district on Cork County Council and is part of the Cork South-West constituency for Dáil Éireann elections. Kinsale is twinned with: Residential developments in the 21st century include the Convent Garden scheme near
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#1732851502712768-405: A role in the numerous Mediterranean wars, slowing down the Ottoman expansion. Although Rhodes had been partially upgraded to the new type of fortifications after the 1480 siege, it was still conquered in 1522 ; nevertheless it was a long and bloody siege, and the besieged had no hope of outside relief because the island was close to the Ottoman power base and far from any allies. On the other hand,
832-457: Is a fortification in a style that evolved during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to dominate the battlefield . It was first seen in the mid-fifteenth century in Italy . Some types, especially when combined with ravelins and other outworks, resembled the related star fort of the same era. The design of the fort is normally a polygon with bastions at the corners of
896-576: Is a holiday destination for both Irish and overseas tourists. The town is known for its restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Bastion restaurant , and holds a number of annual gourmet food festivals. As a historically strategic port town, Kinsale's notable buildings include Desmond Castle (associated with the Earls of Desmond and also known as the French Prison) of c. 1500 ,
960-570: Is based in St Multose Hall Kinsale. It caters to both adult and juvenile players and enters teams in Cork county Leagues and Cups. The Kinsale Branch of the Irish Red Cross has been in existence since 1939 and is staffed by volunteers, who are present at local events and activities – including the annual Kinsale Sevens rugby event. The Kinsale Red Cross has 2 ambulances which are housed in
1024-429: Is some grazing of cattle and sheep . By the late 1990s, only one of the farms was still involved in dairying . Sandycove Island , an uninhabited island, is at the mouth of Sandycove Creek. 51°41′43″N 8°30′55″W / 51.6952°N 8.5153°W / 51.6952; -8.5153 Kinsale Kinsale ( / k ɪ n ˈ s eɪ l / kin- SAYL ; Irish : Cionn tSáile , meaning 'head of
1088-635: The Battle of the Boyne by William III of England (also Stadtholder William III of the House of Orange-Nassau ) after the ' Glorious Revolution ' (or Revolution of 1688) in England against the background of wars involving France under King Louis XIV . From 1694, Kinsale served as a supply base for Royal Navy vessels in southern Ireland, and a number of storehouses were built; it was limited to smaller vessels, however, due to
1152-591: The Napoleonic Wars in the period of France's First Empire. When the ocean liner RMS Lusitania was sunk by a U-boat of the German Empire on 7 May 1915 on a voyage from New York City to Liverpool during the First World War , some of the bodies and survivors were brought to Kinsale and the subsequent inquest on the bodies recovered was held in the town's courthouse. A statue in the harbour commemorates
1216-577: The sandbar at the mouth of the river. English navigator and privateer Captain Woodes Roger mentions Kinsale in the memoir of his 1708 expedition from Cork; in particular, he mentions a pair of rocks known as 'the Sovereigne's Bollacks' on which his ship almost ran aground. Kinsale's naval significance declined after the Royal Navy moved its victualling centre from Kinsale to Cork harbour in 1805 during
1280-605: The 17th-century pentagonal bastion fort of James Fort on Castlepark peninsula, and Charles Fort , a partly restored star fort of 1677 in nearby Summercove. Other historic buildings include the Church of St Multose ( Church of Ireland ) of 1190, St John the Baptist ( Catholic ) of 1839, and the Market House of c. 1600 . Kinsale is in the Cork South-West ( Dáil Éireann ) constituency, which has three seats. In 1333, under
1344-701: The 22-acre site at Abbey Fort was sold by the National Asset Management Agency in December 2015. As of the 2011 census , ethnically Kinsale was 76.5% White Irish, 18.5% other white, 0.5% black, 1% Asian, and 1% 'other', with 2.5% not stated. In terms of religion, the 2011 census captured a population that was 76% Catholic , 10% other stated religions (mainly Protestant), 11% with no religion, and 3% not stated. Bastion fort A bastion fort or trace italienne (a phrase derived from non-standard French, literally meaning 'Italian outline')
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#17328515027121408-792: The Kinsale Council under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 and the Kinsale Town Council existed until 2014 when this layer of local government was abolished in Ireland as part of measures to reduce the budget deficit following the financial crisis of 2008–2010 (see Post-2008 Irish economic downturn ). It returned two members to the Irish House of Commons prior to its abolition in 1800. In its history, Kinsale has also important occasional links with Spain. In 1518 Archduke Ferdinand, later Emperor Ferdinand I, paid an unscheduled visit to
1472-602: The Ottomans failed to take Corfu in 1537 in no small part because of the new fortifications, and several attempts spanning almost two centuries (another major one was in 1716 ) also failed. Two star forts were built by the Order of Saint John on the island of Malta in 1552, Fort Saint Elmo and Fort Saint Michael . Fort Saint Elmo played a critical role in the Ottoman siege of 1565 when it managed to hold out heavy bombardment for over
1536-469: The ability to fire point-blank. The lower the angle of elevation, the higher the stopping power. The first key instance of a trace Italianate was at the Papal port of Civitavecchia , where the original walls were lowered and thickened because the stone tended to shatter under bombardment. The first major battle which truly showed the effectiveness of trace Italienne was the defence of Pisa in 1500 against
1600-483: The appearance of the trace Italienne in early modern Europe, and the difficulty of taking such fortifications, is what resulted in a profound change in military strategy, most importantly, Parker argued, an increase in army sizes necessary to attack these forts. "Wars became a series of protracted sieges", Parker suggests, and open-pitch battles became "irrelevant" in regions where the trace Italienne existed. Ultimately, Parker argues, "military geography", in other words,
1664-533: The attacker should they be overcome, but also to allow the large volumes of smoke that the defending cannon would generate to dissipate. Fortifications of this type continued to be effective while the attackers were armed only with cannon, where the majority of the damage inflicted was caused by momentum from the impact of solid shot . Because only low explosives such as black powder were available, explosive shells were largely ineffective against such fortifications. The development of mortars , high explosives , and
1728-498: The best surviving example of the Dutch school of fortifications. When the newly-effective manoeuvrable siege cannon came into military strategy in the fifteenth century, the response from military engineers was to arrange for the walls to be embedded into ditches fronted by earthen slopes (glacis) so that they could not be attacked by destructive direct fire and to have the walls topped by earthen banks that absorbed and largely dissipated
1792-514: The brine' ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork , Ireland . Located approximately 25 km (16 mi) south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale , it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon , and has a population of 5,991 (as of the 2022 census ) which increases in the summer when tourism peaks. The town is in a civil parish of the same name. Kinsale
1856-538: The consequent large increase in the destructive power of explosive shells and thus plunging fire rendered the intricate geometry of such fortifications irrelevant. Warfare was to become more mobile. It took, however, many years to abandon the old fortress thinking. Bastion forts were very expensive. Amsterdam 's 22 bastions cost 11 million florins , and Siena in 1544 bankrupted itself to pay for its defences. For this reason, bastion forts were often improvised from earlier defences. Medieval curtain walls were torn down, and
1920-425: The covered way, or covert way. Defenders could move relatively safely in the cover of the ditch and could engage in active countermeasures to keep control of the glacis, the open slope that lay outside the ditch, by creating defensive earthworks to deny the enemy access to the glacis and thus to firing points that could bear directly onto the walls and by digging counter mines to intercept and disrupt attempts to mine
1984-480: The defence of the Venetian city, cut down the city's medieval wall and surrounded the city with a broad ditch that could be swept by flanking fire from gun ports set low in projections extending into the ditch. Finding that their cannon fire made little impression on these low ramparts, the French and allied besiegers made several bloody and fruitless assaults and then withdrew. The new type of fortification also played
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2048-404: The defences could not be directed around curved walls. To prevent this, what had previously been round or square turrets were extended into diamond-shaped points to eliminate potential cover for attacking troops. The ditches and walls channelled the attackers into carefully constructed zwinger , bailey , or similar " kill zone " areas where the attackers had no place to shelter from the fire of
2112-466: The defenders. A further and more subtle change was to move from a passive model of defence to an active one. The lower walls were more vulnerable to being stormed, and the protection that the earthen banking provided against direct fire failed if the attackers could occupy the slope on the outside of the ditch and mount an attacking cannon there. Therefore, the shape was designed to make maximum use of enfilade (or flanking) fire against any attackers on
2176-635: The effort. The Lusitania memorial is at Casement Square in Cobh , to the east of Cork city. Kinsale was linked by a branch line via Farrangalway and Ballymartle to the Irish railway system of the Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway and its successors from 1863 until 1931, when the branch was closed by the Great Southern Railways during a low point in Kinsale's economic fortunes. The station, inconveniently located for
2240-552: The enemies. The enemies' hope was to either ram the gate or climb over the wall with ladders and overcome the defenders. For the invading force these fortifications proved quite difficult to overcome and, accordingly, fortresses occupied a key position in warfare. Passive ring-shaped ( Enceinte ) fortifications of the Medieval era proved vulnerable to damage or destruction when attackers directed cannon fire on to perpendicular masonry wall. In addition, attackers that could get close to
2304-590: The energy of plunging fire . Where conditions allowed, as in Fort Manoel in Malta , the ditches were cut into the native rock, and the wall at the inside of the ditch was simply unquarried native rock. As the walls became lower, they also became more vulnerable to assault. The rounded shape that had previously been dominant for the design of turrets created "dead space", or "dead zones", which were relatively sheltered from defending fire, because direct fire from other parts of
2368-571: The entrance to Kinsale harbour bounds the peninsula on the east; the Atlantic Ocean bounds it to the south; and the tidal inlet known as Sandycove Creek bounds the peninsula on the west. Most traffic into Castlepark now arrives via the Duggan Bridge, built in 1976, which crosses the River Bandon from the northern, Kinsale, bank just east of the neck which joins the peninsula to the mainland. Among
2432-466: The existence or absence of the trace Italienne in a given area, shaped military strategy in the early modern period . This is a profound alteration of the Military Revolution thesis. Parker's emphasis on the fortification as the key element has attracted substantial criticism from some academics, such as John A. Lynn and M. S. Kingra, particularly with respect to the claimed causal link between
2496-498: The fact that lower walls were easier to climb, the ditch was widened so that attacking infantry were still exposed to fire from a higher elevation, including enfilading fire from the bastions. The outer side of the ditch was usually provided with a glacis to deflect cannonballs aimed at the lower part of the main wall. Further structures, such as ravelins , tenailles , hornworks or crownworks , and even detached forts could be added to create complex outer works to further protect
2560-592: The following three centuries. Italian engineers were heavily in demand throughout Europe to help build the new fortifications. The late-seventeenth-century architects Menno van Coehoorn and especially Vauban , Louis XIV 's military engineer, are considered to have taken the form to its logical extreme. "Fortresses... acquired ravelins and redoubts , bonnettes and lunettes , tenailles and tenaillons, counterguards and crownworks and hornworks and curvettes and faussebrayes and scarps and cordons and banquettes and counterscarps ..." The star-shaped fortification had
2624-437: The fort walls. Compared to medieval fortifications , forts became both lower and larger in area, providing defence in depth , with tiers of defences that an attacker needed to overcome in order to bring cannon to bear on the inner layers of defences. Firing emplacements for defending cannon were heavily defended from bombardment by external fire, but open towards the inside of the fort, not only to diminish their usefulness to
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2688-549: The grounds of Kinsale Rugby Football Club are used for the annual Kinsale Sevens event, which attracts international teams and thousands of spectators annually. The Kinsale GAA club plays in the Carrigdhoun division of Cork GAA . They won the Cork Football Intermediate County Championship in 2011, the first time since 1915. Kinsale Badminton club which is affiliated with Badminton Ireland
2752-500: The historic centre. This development involves the conversion of the former St Josephs Convent of the Sisters of Mercy on Ramparts Lane into 79 apartments and the building of 94 houses in the grounds. After several years of inactivity, construction and sales activity recommenced in 2015 and 2016. A further residential development, Abbey Fort, includes 260 units at the north end of Kinsale. Initial phases were completed in 2007–2012. Part of
2816-430: The introduction of portable firearms . Roberts linked military technology with larger historical consequences, arguing that innovations in tactics, drill and doctrine by the Dutch and Swedes (1560–1660), which maximized the utility of firearms, led to a need for more trained troops and thus for permanent forces ( standing armies ). According to Geoffrey Parker in his article, The Military Revolution 1560–1660: A Myth? ,
2880-548: The last weekend of October. Pubs and hotels in the town host concerts by jazz and blues groups throughout the weekend, including on the last Monday of October (which is a bank holiday in Ireland). The monumental steel, originally unpainted, sculpture The Great Wall of Kinsale , by Eilis O'Connell and installed in 1988 to celebrate Kinsale's achievements in the Tidy Towns competition, stands by Pier Road and Town Park. Bastion ,
2944-507: The main wall from artillery , and sometimes provide additional defensive positions. They were built of many materials, usually earth and brick , as brick does not shatter on impact from a cannonball as stone does. Bastion fortifications were further developed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, primarily in response to the French invasion of the Italian peninsula . The French army
3008-455: The neck which joins James's Fort townland to the main Castlepark peninsula, there is a marina ; on the eastern side of the neck, there is a sandy beach ; a small village, most of whose houses were built in the 1970s although some date back to at least the early 19th century, straddles the neck. The rest of the peninsula consists of farmland with scattered housing. Most of the land is used for tillage ( cereals and sugar beet ), although there
3072-533: The new fortress design and increases in army sizes during this period. In the nineteenth century, with the development of more powerful artillery and explosive shells, star forts were replaced by simpler but more robust polygonal forts . In the twentieth century, with the development of tanks and aerial warfare during and after the First World War, fixed fortifications became and have remained less important than in previous centuries. Star forts reappeared during
3136-590: The old buildings on the peninsula are: James's Fort (early 17th century); Ringrone Castle (12th or 13th century), a former seat of the de Courcy Barons Kingsale ; and the ruins of Ringrone Church , the latter surrounded by an ancient graveyard that is still in use. Court records from the later seventeenth century show that much of the land was held by two families, the Brocketts and the Bathursts, both fairly recently arrived from England. A series of lawsuits testify to
3200-603: The outer edge of the ditch and also any who should reach the base of any of the walls. The indentations in the base of each point on the star sheltered cannons. Those cannons would have a clear line of fire directly down the edge of the neighbouring points, while their point of the star was protected by fire from the base of those points. The evolution of these ideas can be seen in transitional fortifications such as Sarzana in northwest Italy. Thus forts evolved complex shapes that allowed defensive batteries of cannon to command interlocking fields of fire . Forward batteries commanded
3264-418: The poor relations between the two families. Located within the parish of Courceys , Castlepark peninsula, which has an area of a little under 500 acres (2.0 km), contains three townlands : James's Fort, Castlepark and Castlelands. James's Fort townland, which contains James's Fort , is, itself, a peninsula, protruding out of the north-eastern corner of the Castlepark peninsula. On the western side of
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#17328515027123328-663: The rebel Irish force, led by Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Red Hugh O'Donnell , two Gaelic princes from Ulster . The Irish forces were allied with the forces of King Felipe III of Spain , who was also King of Portugal and the Algarves . In September 1607, a few years after this battle, the Flight of the Earls took place from Rathmullan in County Donegal in West Ulster in which
3392-472: The reign of Charles II , is a bastion -fort that guards the entrance to Kinsale Harbour. It was built to protect the area and specifically the harbour from the use by the French and Spanish in the event of a landing in Ireland. James's Fort , which dates from the reign of King James VI and I , is located on the other side of the cove, on the Castlepark peninsula. An underwater chain used to be strung between
3456-405: The slopes which defended walls deeper in the complex from direct fire. The defending cannon were not simply intended to deal with attempts to storm the walls, but to actively challenge attacking cannon and deny them approach close enough to the fort to engage in direct fire against the vulnerable walls. The key to the fort's defence moved to the outer edge of the ditch surrounding the fort, known as
3520-414: The structures. It was also often necessary to widen and deepen the ditch outside the walls to create a more effective barrier to frontal assault and mining. Engineers from the 1520s were also building massive, gently sloping banks of earth called glacis in front of ditches so that the walls were almost totally hidden from horizontal artillery fire. The main benefit of the glaces was to deny enemy artillery
3584-425: The town also has a school of English. Kinsale Yacht Club (KYC) began in 1950 and today is a sailing club that runs events for all ages of sailors and social activities throughout the year. Junior sailing includes Optimists, Lasers and 420's. The yacht classes include Squib (keelboat) , International Dragon (keelboat) and A-Class Catamaran as well as three Cruiser Classes (Class I, II and III). Founded in 1982,
3648-607: The town and harbour, was on Barrack Hill and the line ran to a junction at Crossbarry on the Cork (Albert Quay) to Bandon line. In 2005, Kinsale became Ireland's second Fair Trade Town, with Clonakilty being the first. Kinsale, with its "electrifyingly bright streets", was rated as among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by Condé Nast Traveler in 2020. Bus Éireann provides Kinsale's primary means of public transport. Buses regularly operate from Kinsale to Cork City, with most of these stopping at Cork Airport on
3712-611: The town, during which one of his staff wrote a remarkable account of its inhabitants. In 1601, a Spanish military expedition – the last of the Armadas launched against the Kingdom of England – landed in Kinsale in order to link with Irish rebel forces and attack England through Ireland. As a result, the battle of Kinsale took place at the end of the Nine Years War in which English forces, led by Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy , defeated
3776-516: The two forts across the harbour mouth during times of war to scuttle enemy shipping by ripping the bottoms out of incoming vessels. James II landed at Kinsale in March 1689 with a force of 2,500 men, raised with the support of King Louis XIV , as part of his campaign to regain power in England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1690, James II and VII returned to exile in France from Kinsale, following his defeat at
3840-420: The wall were able to conduct undermining operations in relative safety, as the defenders could not shoot at them from nearby walls, until the development of machicolation . In contrast, the bastion fortress was a very flat structure composed of many triangular bastions , specifically designed to cover each other, and a ditch. To counteract the cannonballs, defensive walls were made lower and thicker. To counteract
3904-413: The walls. These outcroppings eliminated protected blind spots, called "dead zones", and allowed fire along the curtain wall from positions protected from direct fire. Many bastion forts also feature cavaliers , which are raised secondary structures based entirely inside the primary structure. Their predecessors, medieval fortresses , were usually placed on high hills . From there, arrows were shot at
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#17328515027123968-506: The way. Kinsale and Bandon are linked by public transport with a bus service provided by East Cork Rural Transport. The Archdeacon Duggan Bridge, on the R600 road to the south-west of the town, was opened in March 1977 and named after Father Tom Duggan MC OBE, a chaplain in both WWI and WWII, and later a missionary priest in Peru . This bridge replaced an older cast iron structure of the early 1880s which
4032-459: Was equipped with new cannon and bombards that were easily able to destroy traditional fortifications built in the Middle Ages . Star forts were employed by Michelangelo in the defensive earthworks of Florence , and refined in the sixteenth century by Baldassare Peruzzi and Vincenzo Scamozzi . The design spread out of Italy in the 1530s and 1540s. It was employed heavily throughout Europe for
4096-553: Was located approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) upstream on the River Bandon, near Tisaxon More ( Tigh Sacsan Mór ). There are a number of primary and secondary-level schools in the area. The town's community school was awarded "Best School in the Republic of Ireland" twice, as well as receiving awards at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in 2014. Kinsale College offers a number of further education courses, and
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