Cork going downhill... on a ski slope

It’s all downhill from here — Corkonians could be skiing and snowboarding down the country’s first publicly owned ski slope by next summer.

The Government sanctioned a €21,000 grant yesterday under the Sports Nation Initiative, as part of an overall €80,000 funding package to help the Cork City Council-owned Glen Resource Centre develop an artificial ski slope on its campus.

The 30m-long, 4m-wide outdoor nursery slope will be built alongside the adventure centre’s five-a-side soccer pitches. It will have a gradient of about 14% — about half that of St Patrick’s Hill — and will be open year-round.