Objections to Killarney Park walks proposal

A number of objections have been lodged to a proposal by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to “allow full public access” to the ancient oak woods and rarely glimpsed cascade at the western edge of Killarney National Park.

The remote area at Tomies West was recently home to one of the first pairs of nesting eagles here in more than 100 years.

The application to Kerry County Council by the parks service is for a a 1km roadway, a 28-space car park, and an entrance on the western edge of the park and biggest of the Killarney lakes, Lough Leane.

As well as providing access to O’Sullivan’s Cascade, an attraction much loved by the Victorians and often reached by boat, the roadway will bring greater number of visitors to the Tomies loop walkway.

Two local farmers have given permission for access across their lands but the roadway and car park will be mainly within the park.

At present, Tomies Wood can only be entered through farmland and dogs are not allowed.

This access will join up eventually, it is thought, with a planned pedestrian walkway loop around the lake which is being developed in phases.

However, the council has received a number of objections from environmental groups, as well as from members of a local farm family, and from frequent walkers in the area.

Friends of the Irish Environment claims the access will degrade the highly protected woods and core Unesco Biosphere Reserve, a wilderness area “composed of a mosaic of wildlife habitats”.

“People pressure should be kept to a minimum in the more remote areas of the National Park,” the group said.

“It is intended to facilitate human access to the heart of one of Europe’s and Ireland’s most sensitive nature conservation sites — the O’Sullivan’s Cascade, Tomies Woodland, and the Lough Leane Shore.”

An Taisce, meanwhile, while welcoming better public provision, said the project has “shortcomings” and it will lead to a huge jump in visitor numbers.

Members of the Cremin family, whose lands adjoin the walkway, state in an objection to Kerry County Council that an alternative lake shore route already exists.