The organisers of the 5k parkrun in Youghal in east Cork have announced that the event is cancelled until further notice.
They wrote... "Pobalscoil Na Tríonóide Parkrun is no longer accessible but we are working hard on a new route locally.
Once we get the stamp of approval from Parkrun, we will be delighted to welcome you “Our Runners, Walkers, Volunteers” back to our community Parkrun
It’s not Goodbye forever, just for now!"
Some points...
As far as I know, this isn't a case of just a cancellation of the event at the Pobalscoil na Tríonóide school, it actually means that there will be no more parkruns at this particular location.
That brings up the question of a new location? It can't be on public roads with traffic. The local greenway would be an obvious location if they can get permission but the organisers might have ideas for somewhere else.
The map above shows where a potential parkrun could go on the greenway. There is more than enough room for an out and back course with the turnaround point at 2.5kms well before it hits the road to Ballymacoda.
This course would be pretty much identical to the parkrun on at the Midleton Greenway... it's out and back, it's flat and there is plenty of parking. It's also very easy for visitors to find.
The only crossing point on the greenway around the 500m mark is a set of gates but these could be opened for the outgoing leg with one or two stewards manning the junction. It's only an entrance to one house so it's unlikely to have any traffic.
If and when they find a new location then it's going to take a while to get all the approvals from the various bodies including parkrun Ireland. I get the feeling that most people think that it will be a few weeks before the new parkrun restarts but my own opinion is that it's likely to be several months.
I also think it will be a completely new event so it will have a new name and results webpage. If they do decide with the greenway then it's likely to be called the Youghal Greenway parkrun which will be the only parkrun in Ireland starting with the letter 'Y'... a magnet for all those parkrun alphabet chasers!
The Pobalscoil na Tríonóide parkrun started on the 23rd of October 2021 and there were 223 editions.
The average number of finishers per edition was 54. There seems to be a slight reduction in the numbers in more recent times. If we compare the average numbers for all of 2026 so far to the equivalent time period in 2025 then the number of finishers has dropped 15%.
That's it, for the foreseeable future, we're back to ten parkruns in Co Cork.
Addendum: The reason for the cancellation of the parkrun is because construction has started on two new buildings.
The orange line shows the route that the parkrun used to take.
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