Council draws up plans for car park at Ceann Sraithe
PLANS currently being drawn up for a car park at one of the most scenic spots in Corca Dhuibhne will tread a fine line between providing better access for tourists and spoiling the view they come to admire.
Kerry County Council is currently designing a car park for Ceann Sraithe, which overlooks Clogher strand and offers a panoramic view of Ceann Sibéal, the Three Sisters, Smerwick and Mount Brandon. The iconic view features in every passing tourist’s holiday album but the problem is that they park on a tight bend to take the photos. Concerns about summertime traffic congestion and road safety have prompted calls for a car park to be built at Ceann Sraithe. However, there are also concerns for the preservation of a beautiful, unspoilt area.
Cllr Seamus Cosaí Fitzgerald spelt out the problem. “During the summer you could have two coaches and several cars parked on the bend at Ceann Sraithe. People are wandering around the road taking photographs and at the same time you have traffic passing in both directions. The drivers are distracted by the scenery as well… it wouldn’t be the safest thing really,” he said.
Cllr Fitzgerald said the Comharchumann and local residents had raised concerns about traffic congestion and road safety and, in response, the council was looking at the possibility of providing a car park. He added that the council would have to acquire land for a car park from local farmers but, in the meantime, the project is being designed, after which “it will be put out to public consultation and different views will come forward”.
Those views will almost certainly include concerns about the environmental impact of a car park in an unspoilt area of immense beauty.
Áine Uí Dhubhsláine, who lives just down the road from Ceann Sraithe, said the area is of immense scenic and ecological value and, ideally, should be left untouched. However, if there is no option but to build a car park, then it should be designed very sensitively and particular care should be taken to ensure no buildings, such as toilets, intrude on the visually undisturbed skyline, she said.
“What we don’t want is to create an eyesore that will be there all year round in order to facilitate drivers who only need a car park for a very short part of the year… Instead, we want visitors to see how sensitive we can be in the way we provide car parks in areas such as this,” she said.