Beautiful walk in Offaly gets important funding boost
One of Birr's 'treasures' to be given upgrade
A beautiful Birr walk has received some important funding in the recent tranche of Outdoor Recreation Projects grants.
The walk follows the banks of the River Camcor for a considerable distance from Elmgrove to Springfield Bridge on the Birr-Kinnitty Road and has been in existence for many years as a fisherman's path. It's also been used by locals for many years, a usage which rose spectacularly during the Covid years.
The grant will be €17,538 and will go towards fencing work on the route, clearing the pathway of briars and undergrowth and erecting signposting. Thursday's funding announcement is important because, while carrying out the works has been talked about for a number of years, no funding has been granted towards them until now.
The Camcor walk is a treasure which quite a few people are unaware of. Once the works are complete and the signs up, a lot more people will be aware of it.
The Camcor Working Group was initiated by Birr 20|20 Vision by previous Chair Salters Sterling. This Working Group, which was initially chaired by Councillor Peter Ormond, looked at the project from a number of different points of view, including engineering, ecology, project management, biodiversity, hydrology and social inclusion.
The Working Group's aim was to progress a range of projects related to the river, most notably the Elmgrove to Springfield public amenity walk which runs through the picturesque old demesne landscape of Syngefield House, which also contains the medieval site of Clonoghil Castle, at the back of Syngefield Industrial Estate. Birr 20|20 says this new walk will be a 5km loop linking the Camcor and Birr Town.
The walk is the first step of an ambitious project which will ultimately link Birr Town to a series of walks at Killaun Bog (which is about four miles from Birr), starting with the ‘Killaun Explorer’s Route’.
One milestone of the Camcor Working Group was already reached in 2022 with the publication of “Camcor – The River of Birr” by John Feehan. The book succinctly presents the importance of the Camcor in an engaging and accessible manner, with chapters on the course of the Camcor, its natural history, mills and distilleries, the Camcor basin, the river as an amenity and bridges of the river. It also makes an impassioned plea to preserve the natural beauty that we have.