AFTER 30 YEARS OF OUT OF USE, RATHNEW BAND HALL IS TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE
This newspaper will be championing two wonderful projects as part of the 2017 Get Involved competition – completing the work on the Vartry Reservoir’s walkways and bringing Rathnew’s old band hall back to its former glory. Myles Buchanan reports
AN UPGRADE OF the walkways around Vartry Reservoir will develop and raise awareness of the natural and built heritage of the area for the benefit of the community and visitors alike.
To date, close to 12km of walks were restored in one year, with the completion of the Upper Reservoir Loop now the goal for 2017.
The Roundwood and District Community Council (RDCC) identified walking and outdoor recreational pursuits as a potential strength for the future sustainable development of the area.
It was recognised that the Vartry Reservoirs have an interesting cultural, historical and functional value and are also an important recreational resource for locals and visitors. The RDCC also felt that the potential of the area was totally underutilised.
The proposal to upgrade the walkways around the Vartry Reservoirs and providing interpretation on the Vartry Reservoirs and their natural history was considered one step towards increasing the recreational and socio economic benefit of the reservoirs to Roundwood.
In 2005, in association with the Irish Heart Foundation, the RDCC developed the 7.2km way marked Slí na Sláinte around the Lower Vartry Reservoir. A trail leaflet was also developed.
A second route around the small overflow, or Annex Lake, was also mapped. Various tracks around the reservoirs weren’t marked and became overgrown due to lack of maintenance.
In 2015, the group restored 7.2km of walking route at the Lower Reservoir. A 3km stretch at the Annex Lake was rerouted and resurfaced.
It is the 2.5km walk restored at the Upper Reservoir from the R765 at Knockraheen to the Ford Road on the L5054 that has become a big hit with locals and visitors. It opens up a whole new vista of the Upper Reservoir towards the Sugarloaf.
A small section of the route passes over privately owned lands. The group, with the aid of the Rural Recreational Office for County Wicklow, Pat Mellon negotiated a wayleave agreement with the owners to allow the route access to the Ford Road at Knockraheen.
The walk is fenced off to protect walkers from the paintball activities in the adjoining forest.
Monica Byrne, RDCC secretary, said the whole community has gotten behind the project.
‘So much work has taken place and everyone is very supportive of the project. RDCC got things rolling and have done so much Trojan work. Cllr Shay Cullen has also been a great help and has really pushed things along. It’s great to have a local Roundwood person as a county councillor. It really has been a big community effort.’
The Upper Reservoir walk has already proved so successful that additional road side car parking had to be constructed at the dam entrance on the R765 in consultation with Wicklow County Council and Irish Water.
Now the aim is to bring all the routes up to the same high standard. The next phase of the project is to restore the route to the west of the Upper Vartry Reservoir which will complete the Upper Reservoir Loop walk.
This route is roughly 3km and will require three bridges, including a 200m boardwalk pedestrian bridge to traverse the inside of the Mullinaveige Bridge on the busy R755. A planning application has already been lodged with Wicklow County Council.
‘Get Involved’ is a sustainable community initiative and competition developed by two local newspaper associations – NNI Local and the RNPAI. Between them, these two associations represent 51 local newspapers with a combined readership of 1.65 million people, across all the 26 counties in the Republic.
Local newspapers, including the Wicklow People and Bray People, are getting involved to promote voluntary sustainability projects and to ensure that local communities all over Ireland become much more resilient to the many challenges they face.
The projects will compete to be awarded for their work in a national competition. The overall prize fund is €7,000. The winning project will be awarded a bursary of €5,000, while two further bursaries of €1,000 each will be presented to the two runners-up.
Themes for the projects nationally include biodiversity, water, eco-tourism, sustainable enterprise, community sustainable energy and resource efficiency and Green innovation.
EVERYONE HAS BEEN VERY SUPPORTIVE. IT REALLY HAS BEEN A BIG COMMUNITY EFFORT