Last updated: November 2024
Corkagh Park, spanning 120 hectares, holds significant historical and cultural value for the local community of Clondalkin. The park offers an extensive range of facilities, including football pitches, a newly redeveloped playground, baseball pitches, cricket amenities, and a purpose-built road cycling track. Over the past two years, Corkagh Park has experienced a notable increase in footfall and usage as visitors are drawn to its expansive open spaces. With its rich vegetation, open wetlands, and rolling hills, Corkagh Park provides a unique environment that caters to both wildlife and human visitors. Since its establishment as a public park in 1986, the park’s vast open spaces have served the local community and attracted visitors from the broader region. Currently, Corkagh Park is surrounded by the Village of Clondalkin and nearby residential developments. Currently the park goes through a redevelopment process that involves redesign of several areas including introduction of native vegetation. The enhancement of the park is led by the South Dublin County Council and will feature a central hub area at the heart of the park. This hub will feature a coffee shop, an event space, additional seating, and new play areas. Enhancements to the Fairy Woodland Trail will include additional play elements and seating, as well as a new pedestrian pathway linking the lakes, while maintaining and safeguarding the existing mature trees. The project also includes the felling of ash trees affected by Ash Dieback, with these trees being replaced by native specimens to sustain the park’s ecological integrity. Native edge planting buffers will be established to reduce noise from the N7 and promote local biodiversity. Additionally, the project will address the existing car parks by implementing necessary improvements to better accommodate the park’s visitors. (4, 6)
New ‘hub zone’ to include a Café building and a multi-use events space and stage
Ref. 4
Overview
Nature-based solution
- Parks and urban forests
- Large urban parks or forests
Key challenges
- Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
- Green space creation and/or management
- Habitat and biodiversity restoration
- Regeneration, land-use and urban development
- Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
- Cultural heritage and cultural diversity
- Protection of historic and cultural landscape/infrastructure
- Health and well-being (SDG 3)
- Creation of opportunities for recreation
- Enabling opportunities for physical activity
- Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
- Social justice and equity
- Social interaction
- Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
- Tourism support
Principal problems in Functional Urban Area (FUA)
- Environmental Degradation
- Biodiversity loss
- Land use and Socio-economic change
- Rapid urbanization
- Health, Well-being and Social cohesion
- Inadequate access to recreational opportunities
- Loss of sense of place and identity
Key priorities
Biodiversity (conservation and/or restoration), Social Justice and community
Focus
Maintenance and management of urban nature, Maintenance or upgrade of exisiting green spaces (e.g. parks), Protection of natural ecosystems, Habitat restoration
Project objectives
To enhance the visitor experiences (tourism support) and interaction opportunities.
To promote health and well-being facilities within the park by including walking and cycling routes, picnic areas, outdoor fitness equipment, and organized sports .
To deliver a multi-functional destination space for events of various scales.
To engage with local and regional visitors, aligning projects with community aspirations.
To create year-round destinations for events and recreational activities.
To improve legibility and wayfinding in the park, promoting universal accessibility while respecting Corkagh Park's historic landscape.
To protect, enhance, and promote the park's natural assets, increasing local biodiversity and preserving heritage. (4)
Implementation activities
Main construction works at Corkagh Park began in August 2023 and are expected to continue for approximately 18 months. Given that Corkagh Park is a historic landscape, extensive archaeological investigations were necessary prior to construction. Initial investigations took place in Spring 2023, followed by additional excavations in July 2023, to ensure that no historical artifacts or structures, such as those associated with the Castle and Moated Site, were damaged. These excavations were conducted under an archaeological license granted by The National Monuments Service. Construction in the hub zone, which includes building a new purpose-built café, began in 2023 and will continue through 2024. This hub will serve as a central gathering area within the park, enhancing the visitor experience with amenities such as public toilets (temporary facilities are available during construction), a kitchen, storage space, and indoor seating. Meanwhile, installation of the play units for the Fairy Woodland Trail was completed in late 2022, with further groundwork, including both natural and formal play areas, scheduled to continue through 2024. This initiative is designed to enhance recreational opportunities and foster greater visitor engagement, particularly for children. Native hedge, shrub and trees will be introduced (3).
Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities
Biodiversity restoration:
- Restore native species
Main beneficiaries
- Citizens or community groups
- Young people and children
Governance
Management set-up
- Government-led
Type of initiating organisation
- Local government/municipality
Participatory approaches/ community involvement
- Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
- Taskforce groups
- Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)
- Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project
South Dublin County Council intend to enhance the visitor experience and create an exciting new Hub Zone as part of the Corkagh Regional Park Masterplan (5). Additionally, Brendan Merry & Partners are working with Building Design Partnership (BDP) to implement Public Realm Park Enhancements in Corkagh Park (6). Given the park's historical significance, archaeologists were involved to ensure that any excavation work respects the park's archaeological heritage, particularly in areas with known historical monuments (3). The project was submitted to public consultations in February 2022. (1)
Project implemented in response to ...
... an EU policy or strategy?
Unknown
... a national policy or strategy?
Unknown
... a local policy or strategy?
Yes
(Corkagh Regional Park Masterplan 2020 (1))
Type of enablers
Governance innovations (such as public private partnerships)
Financing
Total cost
More than €4,000,000
Source(s) of funding
- Public local authority budget
Type of funding
- Earmarked public budget
Non-financial contribution
Unknown
Impacts and Monitoring
Environmental impacts
- Green space and habitat
- Reduced biodiversity loss
- Expected reduced biodiversity loss
Economic impacts
- Unknown
Socio-cultural impacts
- Social justice and cohesion
- Improved social cohesion
- Expected improved social cohesion
- Improved access to urban green space
- Expected improved access to urban green space
- Increased opportunities for social interaction
- Expected increased opportunities for social interaction
- Health and wellbeing
- Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
- Expected gain in activities for recreation and exercise
- Improved physical health
- Expected improved physical health
- Cultural heritage and sense of place
- Protection of historic and cultural landscape / infrastructure
- Expected protection of historic and cultural landscape / infrastructure
- Increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging
- Expected increased sense of place identity, memory and belonging
Type of reported impacts
Presence of formal monitoring system
Unknown
Presence of indicators used in reporting
No evidence in public records
Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports
No evidence in public records
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
No evidence in public records
Potential risks of implementation and trade-offs
Unknown
References
1.
South Dublin County Council (2022). €5m scheme unveiled for Corkagh Park. South Dublin County Council, Accessed on September 2, 2024, [Source link];
2.
South Dublin County Council (n.d.). WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?. South Dublin County Council, Accessed on September 2, 2024, [Source link];
3.
South Dublin County Council (n.d.). Corkagh Park Enhancements. South Dublin County Council, Accessed on September 2, 2024, [Source link];
4.
South Dublin County Council (2021). CORKAGH PARK ENHANCEMENTS PART VIII SUMMARY OF PROPOSALS DECEMBER 2021. South Dublin County Council, Accessed on September 2, 2024, [Source link];
5.
South Dublin County Council (2021). CORKAGH REGIONAL PARK CORKAGH PARK ENHANCEMENTS. South Dublin County Council, Accessed on September 2, 2024, [Source link];
6.
Brendan Merry & Partners (2023). March 2023 – Corkagh Park, Clondalkin, Dublin 22. Brendan Merry & Partners, Accessed on September 2, 2024, [Source link];
7.
National Health Intelligence Unit (2024). Health Atlas Ireland Finder Population Profile Community Healthcare Network Clondalkin. National Health Intelligence Unit, Accessed on September 2, 2024, [Source link];
Artistic impression of the Fairy Woodland Trail
Ref. 4
Overall vision sketch
Ref. 4
Information about this nature-based solution was collected as part of the Naturescapes project funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No 101084341.