€2.5m for Spike Island

Spike could attract 300,000 visitors as a major tourist attraction in Cork Harbour

Fáilte Ireland has sanctioned funding of €2.5m for the Spike Island tourism project which will help deliver on the potential of the island as a major tourist destination. A recent report on Spike suggested that 300,000 visitors could be attracted to the island once some key infrastructure is in place. Cork County Council plan to spend significantly on Spike and an interpretive centre in Fort Mitchell is one of the first parts of the plan to be put in place. The funding from Failte Ireland will help the Council to realise Phase 1 of the recently compiled master plan for the island. Compiled by a team of experts, led by Scott Tallon Walker and destination specialists, CHL Consulting, the master plan details the magnificent opportunity to create a new 100 acre national park on the water, with the 40 acre Mitchel Fort at its centre, renovated and developed as a complex of cultural heritage attractions and museums. Minister Simon Coveney welcomed the announcement from Failte Ireland. "The plans for Spike Island are very ambitious. It will be a very significant marine tourism project and when you link what is going to happen in Spike with what is going to happen in Haulbowline, to what is happening in the National Maritime College, to what is happening in the naval base, where there will be two new ships next year, to what will hopefully be happening in Cobh with a new marina, you start to see really significant development around the harbour. Cork Harbour, in many ways, has so much more to offer to the local economy in terms of research, commercial activity, shipping, and also marine tourism.” He added, "The fort infrastructure [on Spike] is very much intact so it will attract a very large number of tourists and we need to put an infrastructure in place to ensure we can facilitate that. The money from Fáilte Island would allow the Spike Island development plan to move to the next phase.”