Camden Fort Meagher

Camden Fort Meagher is a coastal defence fortification close to Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland. Together with similar structures at Fort Mitchell (Spike Island), Fort Davis (Whitegate), and Templebreedy Battery (also close to Crosshaven), the fort was built to defend the mouth of Cork Harbour. Though originally constructed in the 16th century, the current structures of the fort date to the 1860s. Originally named Fort Camden and operated by the British Armed Forces, the fort (along with other Treaty Port installations) was handed-over to the Irish Defence Forces in 1938. Renamed Fort Meagher in honour of Thomas Francis Meagher, it remained an Irish military installation until 1989 when the Irish Army handed the fort over to Cork County Council. It remained largely overgrown until 2010 when a group of local volunteers began restoration and development of the fort for heritage and tourism purposes. The fort was renamed Camden Fort Meagher and is now open seasonally to visitors, with exhibits on the fort's Brennan torpedo installation (the world's first "practical guided weapon").

The headland known as Ram's Head overlooks the entrance to Cork Harbour – one of the world's largest natural harbours, and historically of strategic defensive and naval importance to Ireland and the region. The first harbour defences built at Ram's Head date from 1550 and were originally known as "James' Battery". This fortification was extended in 1600, but fell into disuse after the Nine Years' War. The fort was reinforced in 1690 to defend Cork Harbour during the Williamite War in Ireland, but a party secretly came ashore and took the fort in an overland assault. The ports at Cork and Kinsale were later captured by forces under John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough (later created, in 1702, the 1st Duke of Marlborough), a Williamite commander.

By the Napoleonic War (1779) the defences were known as the "Ram's Head Battery", and upgraded and remodelled to complement other installations at Haulbowline, Spike Island (Fort Westmoreland/Mitchell) and Whitegate (Fort Carlisle/Davis). In 1795 these fortifications were named "Fort Camden" in honour of John Pratt, 2nd Earl Camden, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

By the 1830s, Fort Camden had been reduced to a token force, and the fort was briefly repurposed as a prison. However, a Royal Commission in the 1850s gave renewed consideration to the strategic importance of the harbour, and proposed enhancements to landward defences and seaward gun batteries. This construction work started in 1861, using convict, military and civilian labour. The fort was extended during these works, with many of the site's structures being constructed underground. The current structures of the fort are attributable primarily to these works.

In the 1880s and 1890s, the guns were upgraded with breech-loading rifled guns, newer larger cannons were installed, a minefield was laid across the channel and a launching position was added for the "world's first practical guided weapon", the "Brennan Torpedo".

During the First World War, the harbour was used as a naval base to cover the "Western Approaches", an anti-submarine net was added and further upgrades were applied to harbour defences. After the Irish War of Independence, under the Anglo-Irish Treaty the harbour defences remained in the control of the British government. These Treaty Port installations, including Fort Camden, were handed over to the Irish authorities in July 1938.

During "the Emergency" (1939–1945), elements of the Coastal Defence Artillery (CDA) of the Irish Artillery Corps operated from the fort and the nearby Templebreedy Battery.

The fort was later renamed "Fort Meagher" for Thomas Francis Meagher – who had fought in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. (Similarly, "Fort Westmoreland" on Spike Island was renamed "Fort Mitchell", and "Fort Carlisle" at Whitegate was renamed "Fort Davis").