Disability access must be addressed at Glendalough

LACK of disability access to Glendalough Cemetery needs to be addressed but concerns were raised about the historic graveyard being destroyed.

Cllr Shay Cullen said that disability access to the graveyard is a huge problem both for those with family buried in the graveyard and for tourists who flock to the historic monastic site on a daily basis.

‘ There is no provision for wheelchairs’. he said calling on the council ‘ to make Glendalough cemetery wheelchair accessibly through the provision of ramps at the entrance and within the cemetery’.

He said that often Glendalough was taken for granted but pointed out it was a major tourist attraction.

Cllr Daire Nolan was firmly behind him saying that for many elderly people ‘it is getting increasingly difficult to access the graveyard’. He said that with the drive on to promote Ireland’s Ancient East ‘it would be almost a requirement for Wicklow County Council to do this. We have a duty of care to make Glendalough an amenity for all’.

Cllr John Snell however injected a note of caution. He said that while he supported the spirit of the proposal the council needed to be mindful of the historic nature of Glendalough. He said the entrance to the graveyard ‘is almost as important as the tower itself. It’s a granite archway.’

He said that there is already a study under way to provide disabled access to the cemetery through the car park at the rear of the Glendalough Hotel and said ramps at the entrance to the graveyard is not an option.

Cllr Snell said that the Office of Public Works would never allow ramps there in any case.

Senior executive officer with Wicklow County Council Lorraine Gallagher said that matter had previously been raised in the Dail in 2013 where they had been told the graveyard was a listed monument. In the end the members agreed to refer the matter to the Strategic Policy Committee to see if a solution could be found.