Second public consultation for Greenway in the Skibbereen area - July 2024

There are a number of Greenway projects planned for County Cork and one of these is in West Cork taking in the towns of Skibbereen, Drimoleague, Baltimore & Schull.

In February of 2024, an initial public consultation was carried out and the project area is shown below.

This was more about getting feedback on the proposed Greenway project without going into too much detail about the specific route.

Here are some of the key points from the first public survey...

A. Distances - Skibbereen to Baltimore (13km) - Skibbereen to Schull (23km) - Skibbereen to Drimoleague (13km)

B. There were 644 submissions of which 63% were women.

C. Feedback was very positive and 96% expressed an interest in using the Greenway.

D. Road safety and traffic levels was mentioned as a reason for using a Greenway in about 50% of the submissions.

E. A Greenway from Skibbereen to Schull and Baltimore are the most popular options with fewer choosing the link to Drimoleague.

The second public consultation is open until Friday 26th of July 2024.

The route choices have now been narrowed down as can be seen from the map below.

If you are interested in making a submission or want to look at the documents for the project then go to https://wcgskibbereen.ie/publications/

These Greenway projects tend to move at a glacial pace but the end result show be safer areas to run and train. This is especially true in or near towns where a lot of roads are like rat runs for cars and can be unsafe.

I had a look at satellite images for the area concerned and the old railway route is now largely gone. It's not like the case in East Cork where the track of the old railway line from Midleton to Youghal was largely intact. 

It's very likely all of these Greenway projects will link up and it will hopefully be possible to go from Cork City to Schull without using a public road.

A full timeline for the Skibbereen project is shown below...