Wild Atlantic Way gets back on track

Problems with signage along the 2,500km Wild Atlantic Way are expected to be resolved in the coming weeks amid complaints that some visitors are being directed off the beaten track in certain scenic areas.

Fáilte Ireland is spending €3m on 3,850 road signs from the Inishowen Peninsula, Co Donegal, to Kinsale, Co Cork, and all are due to be erected by the end of this month.

Publication of brochures, detailed maps and an app will follow in July.

Many coastal areas which were not initially included in the route, have been lobbying through politicians for inclusion.

Paddy Matthews, Fáilte Ireland’s manager of experience development, yesterday said that one of the important criteria in identifying the route was that roads should have the capacity to take two-way traffic easily.

Close to 160 discovery points are being identified for upgrade — locations where the visitor can stop off, get out, and explore.

Meanwhile, an area on the northern side of the Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry, which received favourable mention in the Lonely Planet tourist guide has succeeded in its bid to be included on the route.

People in the Cloghane/ Brandon area where Mount Brandon meets the Atlantic argued that tourism was the only viable form of local employment and, if the community was to be prevented from becoming a “futuristic famine parish”, it needed to be included.

Lonely Planet described the area as “a little piece of utopia hiding on the Dingle Peninsula”.