Town Heritage Walk gets €35k in funding
HOPES THAT TRAIL WILL ENCOURAGE GREATER FOOTFALL
WICKLOW town’s tourism offering is set to get a major shot in the arm after it was announced that the Wicklow Town Heritage Trail is to receive €35,000 in Leader funding and is set to be up and running by the height of the busy tourist season.
The development of the trail comes with a keen focus of retaining tourists who travel into the town to visit the historic Wicklow Gaol, which welcomes some 40,000 visitors every year. ‘The whole idea is to take visitors through the town and to generate footfall and show off what Wicklow town has to offer,’ said Chairman of the Wicklow Town Tourism Group Pascal Burke, who has high hopes for the initiative, which it is due to be up and running by July.
THERE are high hopes for the future of Wicklow Town tourism after it was confirmed that €35,000 in funding has been allocated to develop the Wicklow Town Heritage Walk.
Following a lot of work behind the scenes from the Wicklow Town Tourism Group, the funding arrived via the Leader programme and locals are hopeful that it may provide a significant boost in terms of retaining tourists who arrive in their droves each year to visit the historic Wicklow Gaol.
The funding will pay for storyboards and maps to be erected at locations of historical significance around the town starting at St Patrick’s Church taking in the likes of the Franciscan Abbey Grounds, the Town Hall and The Black Castle, before arriving at the jewel in the town’s crown, Wicklow Gaol. The idea is to bring tourists on a journey through the history of the town from the landing of St Patrick, to the bloody rebellion of 1798 and onwards, focusing on historical figures like Robert Halpin and Billy Byrne.
‘The work is to commence in March and be completed by the end of June,’ said Pascal Burke, Chairman of the Wicklow Town Tourism Group. ‘The whole idea is to take visitors through the town and to generate footfall and show off what Wicklow town has to offer.’
Each lectern-type storyboard will direct tourists towards the next stop on the trail and has scannable QR codes which will present the story of each place to you on your phone. In addition, new town maps will be made available at locations around the town such as the train station and bus stop, highlighting the trail and encouraging visitors to follow it.
‘Hopefully it will encourage visitors to do a tour of the town,’ said Pascal. ‘We hope it will encourage people to avail of buses in from places like Glendalough and stick around for a while rather than visiting the Gaol and leaving. The route goes right up the Main Street, so hopefully people will get an idea of what Wicklow is all about.’
While the town has taken its share of knocks in recent years, Fianna Fáil councillor Gail Dunne says that there is a renewed sense of optimism and things like the Wicklow Town Heritage Walk are a huge positive step.
‘This will be a major boost to tourism locally,’ he said. ‘We have a lot of lovely structures like the Gaol, the Abbey Grounds and the Black Castle and there’s great tourism potential there.’
‘We have 40,000 visitors to Wicklow Gaol each year. The problem is keeping them in the town. Things like this walk will hopefully be another niche that will help to keep people in the town. I suppose this is just the latest boost for Wicklow town coming after a €6.4 million investment in the new library and Fitzwilliam Square.’
‘Huge credit is due to David Shannon and the whole Wicklow Town Team and the rest of the committee who really drove this project forward and got it to this point.’ Cllr Dunne also added that funding has been allocated for the back-lighting of historical monuments in the area which ‘will be coming on track shortly’.