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heritage · Saturday 22 August 2026 · 2:30pm 
A Walk Down the Glen - Guided Heritage Walk, Cork
At Ballyhooley Road Car Park · Ballyhooley Road, Cork City
At Ballyhooley Road Car Park · Ballyhooley Road, Cork City
Cork’s Glen River Park sits in a steep glacial valley on the northside of the city, and most Corkonians have driven within a kilometre of it without ever stepping inside. This free guided walk, led by local author and historian Gerard O’Brien, is a chance to finally do that properly - and to hear what the place was actually like when it was still an industrial site, a neighbourhood of just three houses, and a glen local folklore called Gleann na Púca, the haunted glen. It suits anyone curious about the layers beneath an ordinary-looking city park, from history enthusiasts to families looking for something genuinely different during National Heritage Week.
Gerard O’Brien grew up in the Engineers House at the centre of the Glen in the 1950s and 60s, when his father worked for Goulding Fertilizers, whose factory dominated the valley before it closed and was demolished. He later wrote Faeries, Felons and Fine Gentlemen: A History of the Glen, Cork 1700 to 1980, tracing the area from a proto-industrial zone populated by the Dodge family in the 1700s through to Sir Basil Goulding donating the land to the people of Cork in the late 1960s.
The walk covers the social, natural and cultural history of the park - the lost buildings and their owners, the wildlife corridor the valley has become (egrets, sparrowhawks, jays and the occasional fox), and the older stories behind the place names. The park itself is a proper green valley, with a river running east to west, wet woodland, ponds and steep sides that make it feel far removed from the surrounding streets. It is organised by Cork City Libraries as part of National Heritage Week 2026, whose theme this year is Heritage at Risk.
Wear shoes you are happy to have muddy. The terrain is park paths rather than rough ground, but it is a river valley and can be damp underfoot.
The meeting point is Ballyhooley Road Car Park, on the northside of Cork city. Ballyhooley Road runs off the Glanmire Road area; allow fifteen to twenty minutes from the city centre by car and plan for on-street parking on the surrounding residential roads if the car park is full. From the city centre, Bus Eireann and Cork Bus Eireann routes serving the northside run along the Glanmire Road corridor - check the Bus Eireann journey planner for current services closer to the date.
The Glen is just one corner of a northside that rewards a slow afternoon - Blackpool has a full history trail of its own, and Cork city centre is twenty minutes on foot from here. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to Ballyhooley Road Car Park in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.