protection by the river to the north and south, as well as by marshland to the east and west. The higher ground outside the walls, overlooking the walled city from both north and south, was unprotected. The original fort was an irregular work of stone, timber and earth, thrown up while the bastioned fort at Haulbowline was under construction. The fort was garrisoned by October 1602 even though it was unfinished. In 1603 the people of Cork refused to recognise the crowning of James I. Elizabeth Fort was attacked by an unnamed faction of rebels and much of it was destroyed. Within a month, Carew forced the citizens of the city to rebuild the fort at their own expense. In 1624, work to rebuild Elizabeth Fort commenced. A plan of the completed fort by Captain Nicholas Pynnar dated 1626 is the basis of the fort as it now stands. It stands roughly in the same location as the fort of 1601, but it is not possible to know how exactly it followed the footprint. In 1698 a barracks was built nearby. In 1719 a barracks was erected within the fort. In the early 1800s after a new barracks was built for the British military on the north side of the city, the barracks within the fort was converted into a women's prison. In the following years it was used as a prison, a food depot, a hospital and towards the end of the century as a station for the Cork City Artillery Militia. It was handed over to the Irish state in 1920-21. The buildings in the interior were burned during the civil war and a new barracks constructed in 1929.
3.3 Timeline of the development of Elizabeth Fort 1601
Sir George Carew, then President of Munster, initiated the building of Elizabeth fort on a spur of rock overlooking Cork on the south side of the river Lee, a stone and earthen walled structure, built around a pre-existing church, St Mary del Nard. The people of Cork refused to recognise the crowning of James 1. Elizabeth Fort was attacked by an unnamed faction of rebels and much of it was destroyed. Within a
1603
David Kelly Partnership with Margaret Quinlan Architects
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