€22,000 grant secured for investigation of new Greenways in the Kinsale area

The  Kinsale and District Greenway / Blueway Project has the backing of several community groups in the Kinsale area with the aim of opening up new walking and cycling routes in the area. They have now successfully secured a €22,000 grant to undertake a feasibility study.

5.5 Flagship Project... 

Objective:To create a physical connection between the different communities in the area. The geography of the area offers the possibility of a combined Greenway and Blueway and its design would exemplify our core concept of Care for our wellbeing and our environment and highlight our local heritage and biodiversity. 

 7.4 Blueway-Greenway for Area: Initial Scoping for Walkways and Cycleways

We  propose that  Cork  be  the  first  county  to  open  a  complete  coastal  trail  along  its  1100  km  of  coastline:  starting here!•Development  of  a  Coastal  Walk  Route  from  James  Fort  /  Dock  to  Sandycove  and  on  to  Garretstown / Old Head in cooperation with landowners as was used for the Seven Heads and Sheep’s Head ways. This would join up with Garrylucas to Garretstown Walk already in place.•Charles Fort to James Fort is currently a well walked route.•Charles Fort to Preghane Point, Hangman’s Point and onto Ballymacus Strand and Ferry Point at Rathmore with landowner’s co-operation. 

There is a heritage site (Wedge Tomb) at Ballymacus, known as The Prince’s Bed.•Extend Charles Fort / Preghane eastward toward Oysterhaven, Novohal Cove and Robert’s Covevia an extension of the Belgooly estuary walkway to the town of Kinsale. Originally funded by West Cork Leader and the local community, the extension would enhance the 1.836 km corridor on the R600, which is home to a diverse ecological system and natural bird reserve.Walks adjacent to Bandon river e.g. at Shippool Castle,  Shippool Wood and Dunderrow Forest. There is also the potential of a looped walk south of Dunderrow in the Ballywilliam area if it could be linked upstream at the Old Bridge, subject to co-operation of landowners. These would complement the walkways, which havealready been earmarked along former railway lines in the area.Connection points at•Tracton Community & Arts Centre•Belgooly Parish Hall•Lusitania Tower•Kinsale -  Charles Fort / KAFC - town centre - possibilities at Commoge Marsh

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This is a very welcome development as any route suitable for walking is also a nice route for runners. It obviously is only the start of a very long process but at least it has started.

Greenway projects are now seen as giving huge benefits to local communities not only in their tourism potential but also in terms of a local social amenity.

This is a map of the old railway network in West Cork...

It would really be fantastic if large parts of this old network could be reestablished as Greenways. From my understanding, most if not all of the land is now is in private ownership so it certainly wouldn't be an easy or cheap project.

You'll notice as well that there was a small branch line to Kinsale which closed back in 1931. It's not hard to imagine the tourism potential if this connected to a new Greenway from Cork City to Bandon.

We'll have to wait and see what the study proposes.

Link...

1) PDF document on the Transition Town Kinsale website