Impact of the summer holiday season on parkrun numbers in Cork (2026)

In this post, we're going to look back at the numbers taking part in the 5k parkruns in Co Cork during the Spring, Summer & Autumn of 2026 and examine what impact holidays and tourism had.

To remove some of the 'noise' and variability from the data, I calculated the average numbers for each month from February to October 2026. The problem with weekly data is that it jumps all over the place and it makes it harder to see a trend.

I have also split the parkruns into three groups... a) The three parkruns in Cork City b) The satellite towns of Midleton, Mallow & Macroom and c) West Cork.

a) The three parkruns in Cork City... Ballincollig, Tramore Valley & Glen River.

I'm not sure what happened in March but it seemed to be the busiest month for both Ballincollig and Tramore Valley.

You'll notice that there is a definite dip in July which is probably the peak of the summer holiday season. The change is about 10% so it's not huge. The fact that both were down suggests that there is something there alright.

The Glen by contrast showed no dip and it increased by about 13% although it wouldn't take that many runners to show a big jump there.

b) The satellite towns of Midleton, Mallow & Macroom

Midleton saw a large jump in April when a lot of runners took part in the parkrun in memory of someone who had recently passed away. During July and August, there did seem to be a noticeable increase in numbers. July was up 19% on June.

Mallow and Macroom seem to be pretty steady and there seems to be a balance between locals going on holidays and visitors taking part.

c) West Cork

West Cork is a different story though and there is a clear sign of visitors causing a jump in numbers.

The numbers at Clonakilty seem reasonably steady except for July & August when the numbers jump about 40%.

The Castlehaven parkrun in Rineen Woods is the smallest parkrun in Co Cork and also the toughest! The big surge in numbers in August is more than double the figure for June.

Glengarriff shows a similar pattern although it's curious as to why it slowly declines from March to June as opposed to staying steady? Like the rest, there is a big jump in numbers in August.

The most dramatic change is on Bere Island with the August numbers jumping about 180% compared to the usual level in the Spring.

If you look at the charts at the top of the post then you can see that during the months of July and August, Bere Island is the 4th largest parkrun in Co Cork and the largest in West Cork.

Think about that for a monment. A 5k parkrun on an island off Castletownbere way down the Beara Peninsula and where most participants have to get a ferry is the fourth largest parkrun in Cork during July and August.