Council plans to turn dump into adventure park

Ambitious plans to transform a former city dump into one of the country’s largest adventure, leisure, and recreation parks have been unveiled.

The phased development of Cork City’s former landfill on the Kinsale Rd will be one of the largest such reclamation projects in Ireland. It is hoped the plan will be completed by 2018.

The draft masterplan, prepared by landscape architects Brady Shipman Martin for Cork City Council, says the new park “has the potential to become Cork’s year-round active and energetic family leisure and recreation destination”, and will be of “national importance”.

The document, seen by the Irish Examiner, shows how the 29 hectares of public open space and private land, including land around Vernon Mt House on the southern side of the South Ring Rd, could be developed around three central themes — family leisure, energy, and environment, and events and attractions — to include:

* A caravan and motor home park for visiting tourists;

* An all-weather site capable of hosting concerts, ice rinks, circuses, and equestrian events using flexible multi-purpose buildings;

* Indoor and outdoor adventure play centres, to include zip wires, climbing walls, luge tracks, and zorbing;

* An extreme sports trail and cross-country course;

* A network of cycle and walking trails;

* Wildlife trails and viewing platforms over wetland areas;

* Urban farming or allotments;

* An area to highlight the use of renewable energies.

While this work is rolled out in phases over the coming years, subject to funding, the park will open to the public next year.

Michael O’Brien, the senior executive engineer in the city council’s environment directorate, is overseeing the project. He said they were working with counterparts in Cork County Council on tying the new park in with the land around Vernon Mt. It is hoped to link this area to the park via a bridge.

Mr O’Brien said people would be able to enjoy the park’s walking and cycling trails before the end of next year.

“We hope to unveil the masterplan within a few weeks and host an open-day at the park for the public in August,” he said. “That will be the start of our engagement with the public on our plans to transform this site in to a huge public park.”

The masterplan has been modelled on similar, but much larger landfill regeneration projects such as Freshkills Park in New York and Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam.

The 150-acre Kinsale Rd dump opened in 1965 and served as the city’s main landfill until 2009. It is estimated that up to 3m tonnes of waste have been landfilled at the EPA-licenced facility.