Cork coastal village frustrated by vandalism to community-funded telescope

Crosshaven locals recently discovered the village’s beloved telescope had been badly vandalised.

“I had gotten a call from a resident who lives in that area, they walk past every day and look out as part of their daily routine. They noticed that during the week it was vandalised,” Local councillor Audrey Buckley told The Echo.

Frustrated, Cllr. Buckley continued: “It seems that someone got something like a nail, scraped it and then broke one of the other lenses. It’s totally unusable now.” 

Located on Weaver’s Point, the telescope overlooks the opening of Cork Harbour and was originally fundraised for by the Crosshaven Development Committee.

The committee raised funds for the viewing point over seven years ago through the sales of their annual community calendars.

“It cost us €2,000 to get the telescope shipped over from England. We didn’t want a pay-to-use one, we wanted something that was available for everyone to enjoy, and we couldn’t get that here in Ireland.” Cllr Buckley admitted: “We are so frustrated by this senseless vandalism. The telescope is very well used and so many people got so many years of enjoyment out of it.” 

Sadly, the Crosshaven Development Committee do not have the funds to replace the lens and are requesting anyone willing to help to contact them via their Facebook page.

“This won’t keep us down. If we didn’t continue our work that’s being done over this pointless vandalism, nothing would ever get done. You would just give up,” the local councillor insisted.

The Gardai have been notified of the circumstance and ask anyone who may have information regarding the culprit to please share it with the authorities.