New greenway in County Mayo set to open in Spring

aA new 9 km greenway between Castlebar and the National Museum of Country Life, Turlough, Co Mayo is set to open in Spring.

The route which follows the Castlebar River and runs parallel to the N5 is planned to form part of a network of greenways around Mayo.

A number of planned projects combined would result in a walking and cycle network linking Killala to Westport via Ballina, Foxford, and Castlebar. At Westport it would link it with the Great Western Greenway and an under construction route to Croke Patrick, which in-turn link is planned to link to the planned Connemara Greenway to Galway City.

On the Great Western Greenway Facebook page, Mayo County Councils says: “Works are currently in progress and it is hoped to officially open the Greenway in Spring 2014.”

Asked on Facebook about possible future developments of routes, the council says: “Hopefully in time we can link all the Mayo Network together and connect to Greenways outside the county such as the Connemara Greenway. The next priority is developing the 14km Monasteries of the Moy Greenway and extending the Great Western Greenway to the National Nuseum of Country Life.”

Here’s the pictures they posted:

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3 comments

  1. The most shovel-ready project is the Western Rail trail, on the route of what was known as the ‘western rail corridor’ before the government finally pulled the plug on it. If it was completed from Athenry to Kiltimagh, it could easily be connected to this one, which would ‘plug in’ Westport and West Mayo to the Dublin-Galway greenway.
    Recent research by Failte Ireland shows a potential customer base of 11.5 million in Germany alone for cycling holidays in Ireland, but we need a lot of mileage before they will come. All the development of greenways in Ireland has been of the short-stay variety, ignoring the enormous market demand for long routes.
    Once Dublin-Galway is complete, it will effectively almost wipe out the existing Mayo cycling trails, because they are isolated from it. Mayo needs the Western rail trail to be completed, as a matter of urgency, but it is ready to go and the land is all in public ownership. An Taoiseach has a timeframe of ten years, why wait that long? Do we not want the jobs?

    Reply
  2. I totally agree with John Mulligan’s response. There’s a disused railway from Collooney to Athenry that could be used to extend the route. On a Good Friday two years ago in one 30 minutes 60 cyclists (individual groups) passed the platform at Mulranny on The Great Western Greenway. The potential to bring tourism and business to places along the route has to be also acknowledged. Development of these cycle routes is vital.

    Reply

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