€500,000 Kilcormac tourism project targets summer launch
Adrian Cusack
There are hopes that a €500,000 tourism project proposed for Kilcormac, which would include a 'tourist train' to Lough Boora along with bike hire facilities and a tourism office at the community centre, could be up and running in time for next summer.
Kilcormac Development Association was awarded €435,000 in Just Transition funding for the St Joseph's Community Centre Development initiative. The required matching funding, which is to be generated from local fundraising, is expected to bring the total cost of the project above half a million euro.
Cllr John Leahy, the chairman of the Kilcormac Development Association, explained that the project would be in conjunction with Barrett Cycles and would involve the installation of portable units for bicycle hire and bicycle sales.
"We'll have a tourism office as well, and a remote working hub," he said of the development, which would be located on the grounds of St Joseph's Community Centre.
The 'tourist train' would be a road-driven vehicle, designed to look like a train, which would pull two carriages.
"The significance of the train is actually the location. If you drive out of Kilcormac and head down the Lough Boora road, which is about three kilometres, left and right of you is bog and bog forest.
"What we'll be doing, in conjunction with Bord na Mona, is placing the machinery (along the route) from the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s, and effectively telling the story of how Bord na Mona developed over the years. There will be audio on the train, and audio on the bike with your headset," said Cllr Leahy.
Kilcormac Development Association secured planning approval in 2017 for the construction of a bicycle rental shop, store and compound at the community centre but Cllr Leahy said modifications to this planning application would now have to be sought.
"We need to make a modification to our planning because the planned structure was a solid structure but now it's portable structures.
"So we'll be going for planning before Christmas and we hope to be drawing down the (Just Transition) money probably in May of next year. May is our target to have the hubs in place, to try to drive it on for the summer market."
A tourism website - visitkilcormac.com - was put in place earlier this year and Cllr Leahy said there was good potential to draw more tourists to the area.
"Kilcormac would be very significant to Bord na Mona's operations because when you got a job in Bord na Mona you got a house," he explained.
"St Cormac's Park is 104 houses, and the 32 counties would have been represented at one stage, with families living in those houses from all over the country. People came, got the job, and got a house. There's a whole story to be told there."