Cork County Council recently announced that the Cork to Kinsale Greenway Project Team have opened their second Public Consultation. This one is focusing on Route Corridor Options.
This Public Consultation will run from Friday 6th September 2024 to Sunday 13th October 2024.
They will be holding the following in-person events;
17th September 2024, 14:00 – 20:00, The Viaduct, Old Bandon Road, Co.Cork. T12 ND34.
18th September 2024, 14:00 – 20:00 Actons Hotel, Pier Road, Dromderrig, Kinsale, Co.Cork, P17 PX80.
1st October 2024, 13:00 – 20:00 Actons Hotel, Pier Road, Dromderrig, Kinsale, Co.Cork, P17 PX80.
The information for this public consultation including maps showing the route corridor options can also be found online on the project website, www.corkkinsalegreenway.ie
Routes... Let's have a look at the route options...
The Red route more or less follows the route of the old railway line. The Blue route follows the N71 from Cork City to Halfway and then roughly the R607 to Kinsale. The Green route goes cross country to connect to Riverstick and Belgooley and on to Kinsale. The Pink option is a more westerly route from Crossbarry to Kinsale.
Note that each route isn't exclusive. The letters on the map are Corridor Switchover Nodes where the route can change from one colour to another.
Let's break the routes down into stage. First the northerly leg coming from Cork City.
Northern Section...
The BLUE route starts by the Bandon Road Roundabout (A) and then proceeds south through the valley, most likely under the Chetwynd Viaduct (C) and then pretty much stays close to the N71 Cork to Bandon road. It passes through or very close to the village of Ballinhassig before proceeding west to point D near Halfway.
The RED route pretty much follows the old railway route. It starts at point B which is near the Chetwynd reservoir and would connect to the planned greenway which is due to be built which goes to the Kinsale Road Roundabout.
The red route would cross over the Chetwynd Viaduct and head over towards Waterfall. It then heads south before going through the Goggin's Hill tunnel.
This tunnel is about 800m in length with some spectacular ventilation shafts along the way, a great feature to have on any Greenway.
The image below is of the tunnel from the southern entrance.
Note that the tunnel is curved and you can't see the other end. It also means that it's very dark inside so some discreet lighting would be required. There are two ventilation shafts along the way which provide some light and a constant shower of water from above.
From the southern bore of the tunnel, there may be options to drop down the hill to join the proposed blue or green route for the rest of the route.
Route Profile... At first glance, you might think that the blue route following the N71 would be the easier route but that's not the case. The profile for the two routes is shown below and I've adjusted the vertical scale so that you can make a direct comparison...
Some points...
1) Point B starts at an elevated height already near the Chetwynd reservoir whereas point A is down near the Bandon road roundabout.
2) The red route uses the viaduct and tunnel to avoid the steep gradients.
3) On the blue route, the saddle that the N71 passes through is about 135m above sea level (ASL). The red railway route passes through a saddle with an elevation of about 120m ASL.
Opinion... In terms of routes, I think the red route is by far the preferred option for the northern section. The gradient is more gentle which is better for walkers, runners and cyclists. It's feature rich with the viaduct, old bridges and the tunnel. It takes in the village of Waterfall which will be then be very easy to access by bike. It runs through the countryside and will be mostly very quiet.
By contrast, the route next to the N71 will be noisy and largely unattractive.
It's not hard to imagine say in 20 years time large numbers of people using the red route on a Sunday.
Southern Section... For the southern end, there are a load of options...
The GREEN route takes in the population centres of Riverstick and Belgooley.
The BLUE route is kind of the most direct route from Kinsale to the Googins Hill tunnel.
The RED route more or less stays true to the old railway route.
The PINK route is pretty much a token gesture connecting Kinsale to what will become the main Cork City to West Cork Greenway.
Gradient profile of the southern section... These are the various profiles adjusted to the same scale...
You can find a higher resolution image HERE
As you can see, the PINK option reaches the highest elevation and goes the furthest to the west.
RED probably has the gentlest profile but the dog leg west to Crossbarry is going to be an issue for someone who just wants the most direct route from Cork City to Kinsale.
It's worth noting that the old railway line is more or less gone from large sections of the RED route. When I was looking at the satellite maps, I had trouble finding where it might have been.
Opinion... My own preferred route for the southern section is the Green one mainly because it connects the population centres of Riverstick and Belgooly to Cork City and Kinsale. It's not hard to imagine plenty of locals walking, running and cycling on the greenway. One issue of the more central red and blue routes is that they are likely to be very quiet once you get away from the town of Kinsale.
In conclusion... If we take some of the shorter options on the maps then the overall distance of the Cork - Kinsale Greenway is in the region of 30kms. It's about 10kms between Ballinhassig and Cork City and the balance of 20kms is from the Ballinhassig/Halfway area to Kinsale.
I'd invite you to visit the project website, examine the maps and make a submission... www.corkkinsalegreenway.ie
There are going to be people who will object to this just because they don't like change and they'll moan about anything.
There will be farmers who will have genuine concerns about their farms and the impact of a potential Greenway.
And there will be a small number of home owners who will have genuine privacy concerns.
It's important though that if you support the project that you make a submission. It's very easy for a project to get watered down to an extent that the end result is an unattractive Greenway that no-one really wants to use.
You only have to visit the Waterford Greenway and see how the section from Dungarvan to the Ballyvoyle tunnel is a tourism magnet. The Chetwynd Viaduct and Goggins Hill tunnel has the same potential for Cork City.
Who knows, in the dim and distant future there might even be a Greenway 10k from Halfway to Cork City or a race from Kinsale to Cork.
Addendum: This old video clip gives an idea of what the old railway line from Halfway to Cork City looked like...
5 comments:
Very interesting observations. As a Crossbarry resident there’s plenty reasons to stay true to the old railway line and come west on the red route. firstly the Crossbarry and Upton ambush sites are on the route. Also there’s another railway tunnel at Kilpatrick near Innishannon, which is where the railway then crossed the Bandon river and connects to the “Claire O Leary” walkway all the way to Bandon which is currently being upgraded. Hopefully many years of running on it lie ahead.
Let's all hope this comes to fruition. Living less than 1 mile from the pink, purple, blue and red routes I'll ne delighted to see this happen. Parts of the pink and purple sections shown in the map would also be quite close to the Battle of Kinsale site and would present opportunities to have some sort of historical tourist trail at some of the key spots.
The red route seems the most logical.
This whole Greenway has been handled disgracefully. This is a totally different situation to Waterford because all of the old railway line is privately owned now. You couldn’t find the exact location of the railway on the red route because it’s forms part of farms the entire way. The red route will go straight through our family farm which we have worked for generations, and make it totally unviable as a business. No compensation, bridge or tunnel can fix it, what do you expect future generations of our family to do? It’s deeply disrespectful of people like you here to say people will object because they ‘fear change’. What is being proposed is compulsory seizure of our land so that people can walk/cycle in a place a railway once upon a time existed. There is nothing on the red route but pristine countryside which would be destroyed if this happened. There’s no infrastructure to support it. The only was this is feasible is to go the green route through population centres.
Maybe instead of worrying about which one might have a little hill, consider the livelihoods and family heritage that will be ruined for this project.
Oh I fear for our national greenways, with the attitudes as expressed in the comment above. I have cycled all over Europe on fabulous cycle greenways and only in Ireland it seems do you get the deep naysayers and NIMYISMS. Let farmers be compensated but of course, as a society we simply HAVE to have the best Greenway we can get. Period!
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