Long-distance Trails in The Republic of Ireland - History

History

The impetus for the development of the National Waymarked Trails came about in response to the establishment of the Ulster Way in Northern Ireland. This prompted the appointment in 1978, by Mr John Bruton, T.D., of the Cospóir Long Distance Walking Routes Committee (now the National Trails Advisory Committee of the Irish Sport Council) to establish a national network of long-distance paths in Ireland. The committee consisted of representatives of various sectional interests, including An Taisce whose nominee, Mr J. B. Malone, was appointed Field Officer of the committee. Malone had done much to popularise walking through a regular column in the Evening Herald newspaper, contributions to television programmes as well as two books on the subject. The first trail to be developed – the Wicklow Way – was based on a series of articles he had written for the Evening Herald in 1966.

Each of the trails to have been developed makes use existing paths, tracks, forest roads, boreens and by-roads but, in the absence of any compulsory powers to include any of these, provision of and access to any such routes is achieved by agreement with local authorities and landowners. Agreement with private landowners has not always been forthcoming. Most of the routes, therefore, are highly dependent on access provided by the state: Coillte, the state-owned forestry company, is the largest single manager of any of the trails with more than 30 National Waymarked Trails making use of its property. Coillte provides and maintains 52% of all off-road walking trails and 24% of the total amount of developed walking trails in Ireland. Access issues mean that many trails have substantial sections on public roads. Writing in The Irish Times, John G. O'Dwyer summed up the situation as follows: "Trails often tiptoed timidly through the countryside, offering extended stretches of boringly unsafe road topped with boot burning bitumen. These were frequently interspersed with gloomy trails through invading armies of monoculture, including stands of Sitka spruce that were generally as memorable as a motorway median". Trail erosion has also been an issue with some of the more popular routes.

The National Trails Strategy, published by the Irish Sports Council in 2006 to set out a vision for the development of recreational trails in Ireland, acknowledged many of these shortcomings and found that "the quality and standard of recreational trail development, for the most part, falls well below international standards. The strategy identified access as "the single most important and defining issues that will impact on the success or otherwise of this strategy and the creation of a sustainable recreational trail development in Ireland". Following on from the publication of the National Trails Strategy, a 2010 review of the National Waymarked Trails by the Irish Sports Council restated many of these issues and made recommendations to address them. One of these recommendations was a proposed new standard of trail, called a National Long Distance Trail, intended to meet international standards for outstanding trails. This standard would require sections on unsuitable roads to comprise less than 10% of the total trail and for appropriate support services – accommodation, meals, transport, luggage transfer etc. to be available. Five trails – the Beara, Dingle, Kerry, Sheep's Head and Wicklow Ways – have been recommended to be prioritised for upgrade to National Long Distance Trails.