Progress on greenway trails project linking Athlone area with Offaly

Progress is being made on the development of a network of cycling and walking trails that will connect parts of West Offaly with Athlone.

The first stage of the Midlands Trails Network initiative includes an almost 7km trail from the outskirts of Athlone town as far as Ballinahown, on the Offaly - Westmeath border.

Work on this section began last year and is due to be largely completed by the end of next month, with its opening to the public expected before the end of this year.

The multi-million euro project is taking place on Bord na Móna (BnM) lands, and is being developed by the company in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland, using Government and EU Just Transition funding.

The Athlone to Ballinahown section will then continue into Offaly, where it's due to ultimately reach Lough Boora Discovery Park as part of a 28km trail development overall.

A 4km upgrade of the existing cycling and walking trail at Lough Boora was completed recently as part of the project.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent, Fiona Monaghan, head of activities at Fáilte Ireland, said Athlone to Ballinahown was on track to be "substantially complete" by the end of September.

She said that this meant "the trail will be complete, the fencing will be complete, and the bulk of the pavilions, or the trailheads and gateways, will be done".

She added that some other elements, such as "wayfinding, orientation, and interpretation," will still be ongoing beyond September, meaning the trail won't be able to open immediately at that stage.

"We can't give an indicative date for the opening (to the public), other than it will open before the end of the year, and there will be a formal opening," Ms Monaghan added.

She said the development of the trail network in West Offaly was some months behind the Athlone to Ballinahown section, but that it was making progress also.

"The West Offaly section is a little bit further behind, but the trail development is in progress and they have all their trail building resources on that at present.

"This month, in August, they will start the second stage, which is the building out of the gateways, the road crossings, the harder infrastructural pieces and car parks at the trailheads.

"So that will be several months behind, but it's still making good progress," she said.

She said the Athlone to West Offaly sections of the trail network that are currently under development should be fully open by the Spring of next year.

"As they are completed, they will be opened for locals in particular, first and foremost, and then for domestic tourists and other tourists as the season kicks in next year," Ms Monaghan said.

Separately, she said planning work was progressing on a trail that would take a turn off the Athlone to Ballinahown route, shortly before reaching the latter village, and would continue on to Clonmacnoise, thus providing a long-awaited greenway link between Athlone and the ancient monastic site.

"The section to Clonmacnoise is only going to get into planning (approval stage) under this process, but we would be very hopeful that, post-Just Transition, we will continue to work with BnM on getting that realised through some other funding mechanism," Ms Monaghan said.

"(Approaching Clonmacnoise) is a particularly sensitive section of the bog, so there was a huge amount of due diligence done on all of the environmental screenings and reports."

Athlone resident Flan Barnwell, who along with Paul Mulvey and others, has long been advocating for the development of a greenway link between the town and Clonmacnoise, praised BnM for the work done to date on the section to Ballinahown and said he was looking forward to seeing the progression of the route to Clonmacnoise.

In addition, Westmeath County Council has formally granted planning approval for a local 1.3km greenway in Ballinahown which will "connect Ballinahown Sports Park, the village and surrounding hinterland" to the Bórd na Móna greenway corridor that's intended to form part of the wider Athlone-Clonmacnoise greenway.