Ballinluska house was built before the 1900’s. It was built as a coastguard station. Mrs Hobsons house “Strand Cottage” was the original coastguard station. Then they decided to build a new one. The British were ruling this part of Ireland at the time. The police ran the station. They were watching everything around the coast and they used to control everything that was going on.
Four families used to live in the coastguard station. They used to set their own gardens and used to do their own washing. They had separate houses for the washing. They used to light big open fires and boil the water on the fires. They used to save all the water from the roofs into big tanks for washing. The tanks are still there.That was before I was born.
They had gun turrets over the doors. If anyone knocked at the doors they would look down from overhead at both sides and put guns out over the door.
There was a path outside the garden gate at the end of the garden, looking over the cliff. That was a right of way all the way over to Fennels Bay. It fell down when I was about 14 or 15 and its been closed ever since.
The boat house at the top of the beach was owned by the coastguards. On the rocks under Bunny’s, there was a big crane, which used to lift the boats up out of the water, and swing them around to land them on the rocks. There was a concrete platform for sitting the boats on. There was a hut there as well, for holding engines. That was there when we were kids. They’re all washed away now.
After the time of the coastguards, a man called Galway bought Ballinluska House. He sold it to his sister, Mrs Balfe. Then my brother bought it, he’s living in America.
The two semi-detached houses”” and “” were brought to Myrtleville and erected after the First World War. They were a hospital during the First World War in Rushbrook over near Cobh. The Americans put them up. Murphy the builder bought them to put them up here.
They had another big coastguard station in Crosshaven, near where the guards barracks is. They were all over the coast. There was another one over by the lighthouse at Roches Point. Up in the fort in Camden, which is mostly underground, they would fire torpedoes out from the shore if there was a ship coming into the harbour that didn’t want to stop. They would sink the ship. The place for the torpedoes is still there.
Spike Island was another fort in the harbour.They used to lock people up there before they transported them to Australia and New Zealand. Any one who did any harm would be deported.