ILI CPD Walking Tour | Marina Park and Tramore Valley Park, Cork City Council
12 noon Friday 8th May 2026
ILI CPD Walking Tour | Marina Park and Tramore Valley Park, Cork City Council
12 noon - 4.30pm Friday 8th May 2026
The meeting point for this event will be the Council Chamber of Cork City Council where you will have a short introduction with tea and sandwiches. A private coach will take guests to Marina Park, and then onwards for a tour of Tramore Valley Park.
The ILI is delighted to collaborate with Cork City Council in bringing this opportunity to explore these two parks. We thank Emer O'Callaghan, Cork City Council; Rani Izhar, OKRA; and David Bosonnet, Brady Shipman Martin, for guiding us through the landscape.
Travel: Cork Kent train station is a 10 minute walk; various bus stops within a 5 minute walk; Black Ash Park & Ride (adjacent to Tramore Valley Park), Mick Barry Rd costs €5 per car including a shuttle bus to and from City Hall.
Marina Park Tour led by Rani Izhar, OKRA
Photo: Marina Park, Cork 'A dialogue between river and city' OKRA
Marina Park in Cork embodies many facets of the city. It fulfils the long-standing promise of creating a regional park to the east of the city. Like many former industrial cities, Cork has significant decommissioned industrial areas along the river, adjacent to its city centre. Today, these areas present an opportunity for residential development and the redevelopment of public spaces. Marina Park is a key component in Cork’s ambition to develop its docklands industrial area into a lively and integrated neighbourhood for the city.
The park is designed on a former brownfield site comprising mostly derelict show ground buildings, a Gaelic sports stadium, and a run-down natural zone. This diverse and complex setting created a challenging context for crafting a well-planned and cohesive park. Based on our overall vision, the park is realised in distinct phases, resulting in a large, diverse but coherent environment for the city.
Embracing the water: an adaptable park
In our plan, the park plays a vital role in managing storm water runoff, not only within the park but also for the surrounding residential areas, and future dockland development. It presents a landscape-oriented solution for urban adaptation, accommodating the temporary storage of increased or extreme rainfall events and rising sea levels.
Water becomes the backbone of the park, harmoniously integrating natural wetland areas with social gathering and event spaces. Our integrated approach to landscape, water engineering, and cultural heritage results in a well-balanced park that transforms the contextual challenges of temporary water storage into one of the park’s stand out features.
Read more at: www.okra.nl/project/marina-park
Biography - Rani Izhar
Rani Izhar is a senior project leader with over 15 years of experience in public realm and landscape design projects across the Netherlands, Ireland, China, and the UK. He is passionate about creating spaces that benefit both people and nature, generating positive impact for communities, ecosystems, and the wider environment.
With deep expertise in climate adaptation and urban ecology, Rani approaches design as a tool for shaping resilient, inclusive, and meaningful places. His work is driven by strong ideas, a clear design language, and a commitment to detail that carries from concept to construction. At OKRA, he leads transformative projects such as the Marina Park and Promenade, the regeneration of the North Docks, the Northwest City Park, all in Cork, and the Grow College Green transformation project in Dublin. Each reflecting his belief that landscape architecture plays an important role in urban transformation creating lasting value for people, cities, and ecosystems.
From Landfill to Landscape
Tramore Valley Park, Cork
Presentation and tour led by David Bosonnet, Partner, Brady Shipman Martin
Tramore Valley Park sits on the former Kinsale Road Landfill, which took in roughly 3 million tonnes of waste between 1964 and 2009. Cork City Council spent around €42 million capping and remediating the site with specialised clay and managing the ongoing collection of gases and leachate under EPA licence obligations.
Brady Shipman Martin, led by David Bosonnet, prepared the framework masterplan in 2012. Adopted by both Cork City and Cork County Councils in 2013, it set out a vision for a flexible, multi-purpose amenity park across approximately 100 hectares, taking in the capped landfill (70ha) and the hillside open spaces south of the N40 (30ha). The EPA licence requirements shaped the design throughout. The park opened in May 2019.
The park now includes the 2.5km Robert Heffernan walking loop, a BMX track, multi-use events pitch, outdoor gym and the KinShip public art project* (which includes the EcoLab, reportedly the first public building in Ireland to use rammed earth construction). The Vernon Mount Bridge, opened in November 2023, provides a pedestrian and cycle link over the N40, connecting the park to Grange and Frankfield.
David will give a brief overview of the site's history, the public and stakeholder engagement process, and the key challenges and opportunities in remediating and transforming this landscape, turning an old liability into a new asset for the Cork city region.
* link to the ongoing KinShip Arts Project by LennonTaylor at Tramore Valley Park.
Biography - David Bosonnet
David is a senior landscape architect and partner at Brady Shipman Martin and is based in Cork. He qualified from UCD in 1995 (B.Ag.Sc. (Land Hort) and has been a partner at BSM since 2004. He is a Member of the Irish Landscape Institute and Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute (UK).
Working closely with Cork City Council, and environmental engineers Fehily Timoney, David was the project lead in the preparation of the original Tramore Valley Park Masterplan in Cork, transforming the former Kinsale Road Landfill brownfield site into an important public amenity for the city.
David will briefly outline a history of the site, public/stakeholder engagement process and some of the considerations in the planning, landscape design and delivery of this amenity park.
TRAMORE VALLEY PARK – VISION TO DELIVERY: THE REHABILITATION OF AN OLD LANDFILL SITE by D. Bosonnet and K. Ryan
The Irish Landscape Institute appreciates the invaluable support of Cork City Council in facilitating this tour
