Ongoing numbers for the Glengarriff and Castlehaven parkruns

Following on from the post about the second anniversary of the Bere Island parkrun, I had a look at the numbers for the other two parkruns in West Cork...Glengarriff and Castlehaven. Both began in January of 2016 and the numbers are shown below.

Glengarriff 5k parkrun...

As you can see from the chart above, it started off with the usual surge that accompanies most new parkruns but it took quite a while for the numbers to drop off. In June, they were pretty poor before recovering somewhat during the tourist season in August.

I'm not exactly sure why the numbers were reasonable in March & April and so poor in June when the weather might be a bit nicer?

As the winter approaches, it'll be even more challenging for the numbers to hold up. One of the issues with Glengarriff is that it is pretty remote. The local population of Glengarriff is only about 800 and the nearest large town is Bantry (pop 3300) which is a 20 min drive away. Add in a return trip and that's 40 mins of driving for a 5k run.

Castlehaven 5k parkrun...

The numbers in Castlehaven have been more consistent than Glengarriff and this is probably due to the fact that it is only a 10 minute drive from the town of Skibbereen (pop 2500). It has been averaging about 40-50 per week for the last few weeks and shows no sign of dropping.

This was set up by a local GAA club so that may well be another source of local support.

If you are thinking of trying a new parkrun then both these ones are pretty nice. They are set in woodland and are worth the trip especially if it's a nice sunny day.

New Castlehaven 5k parkrun to start Saturday 16th Jan 2016

Back in December, I had a post up about a new 5k parkrun starting in Castlehaven near Skibbereen in West Cork. At the time, the planned date was for sometime by the end of January 2016.

It has just been announced that the parkrun will be in Rineen Woods and it will start next Saturday the 16th of January at 9:30am. As you can see from the map above, Rineen Woods is pretty close to the N71 Skibbereen - Clonakilty road so access should be pretty easy.

To take part, all you need to do is to go to the parkrun Ireland website, register and print out your bar code. Just bring this to the scanning station after the 5k along with the token which you will be given at the finish line.

This will be the sixth parkrun in Co.Cork. Where next?

New parkruns for Castlehaven in West Cork & Tramore in Waterford

In addition to the new 5k parkrun in Glengarriff starting on the 2nd of January 2016, it has just been announced that there will be another new parkrun starting near Castlehaven in West Cork.

This new parkrun will the sixth in Cork and has its origins in Castlehaven GAA club. They have recently set up a Fit for Life Society which will encourage members of the local community to get fit by taking part in running, cycling and swimming. The new 5km weekly parkrun is part of this new initiative and they hope to have it up and running at the end of January 2015.

Head of parkrun Ireland Matt Shields and his wife Ruth with Club Running Director Brendan O'Donovan

The head of parkrun Ireland recently traveled to West Cork to meet up with the organisers in early December and gave this interview...

In the earlier stages of parkrun in Ireland, they were usually located in the population centres in cities like Belfast and Dublin and in the larger towns. Some of the newer ones however are in areas where the population density is much lower. What this means in effect is that new parkruns could pop up just about anywhere in Munster in the future.

These will be the parkruns in Cork & Munster as of February 2016...

As you can see, there is also a new one starting in Tramore on the 2nd of January 2016. With a local population of about 10,000 people and its proximity to Waterford City, it should get a decent number every week.