Trabolgan (Irish: Trá Bholgan, meaning 'strand of Bolgan') is a self cateringholiday village on a 140-acre (0.57 km2) site which was a former country estate in the civil parish of Trabolgan, County Cork, Republic of Ireland.[1][2] The holiday camp was registered on 1 May 1984 (1984-05-01)[3] and officially opened on 29 June 1985 (1985-06-29).
History
Roche family
Trabolgan House was the seat of the Roche dynasty from the middle of the seventeenth-century up until 1880, when the family was forced to sell the house and most of the Trabolgan Estate.[1][4][5] The head of the Roche family was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Fermoy in 1856, when Edmond Burke Roche was created the 1st Baron Fermoy.[1][4][5] Trabolgan House itself was largely rebuilt in the Georgian style circa 1780, with the house being significantly extended during the nineteenth-century.[2][5] Trabolgan House was demolished in the early 1980s.[6][2][5]
Pontin's Trabolgan
Trabolgan was first opened as a holiday camp in 1948 by Pontin's, which built over 100 chalets, a dance hall and an outdoor swimming pool. The development was initially successful at attracting British holiday-makers.[7]
Scoil na nÓg
Trabolgan was not successful in the longer term however, and it was converted into a boy's boarding school, Scoil na nÓg, operated by Gaedhealachas Teo from 1959 to 1973.[7]
Trabolgan Holiday Village
In 1975, the Trabolgan estate was purchased by a Dutch Coal and Metal Industry Pension Fund and a small holiday development consisting of 30 houses, bar and clubhouse was opened in 1980, catering mainly for the continental market. The decision to extend the village to include a Main Centre and a wide range of facilities was taken in 1983, and building was completed in 1985; the village was officially opened on 29 June 1985 (1985-06-29) by Michael McNulty, the Director General of Bord Fáilte, and W.L. Van Leeuwen, the Director of Trabolgan Homes.[7] The site changed hands several times, and was put up for sale in 2000[8] and purchased by Trevor Hemmings in 2002 to operate as Trabolgan Holiday Village.[9]
