Sir, - Some friends and I visited the Dingle Peninsula the weekend of June 5th-7th. We enjoyed the trip and generally found the place to be very welcoming. Our stay, however, was tainted somewhat by the deeds of some local landowners, who levy visitors to walk a narrow strip of their ground to historic, State-owned ruins.
We first encountered the problem at Dunbeg fort. The walkway to the fort is guarded by teenagers who wait, sitting in a specially erected hut, to charge tourists £1 each to walk a short distance to the fort entrance. Up and across the road from this, I understand that visitors are charged to view feigned beehive huts.
Further, signposts to the Gallorus Oratory now take you through an expensive and privately-owned interpretative centre, the presence of which suggests that there is no public entrance to the oratory and its grounds. Indeed, we only knew of the public walkway because of one of our party's excellent knowledge of the area.
The last time that I spent time on the Dingle Peninsula was, perhaps, 10 years ago. On that occasion I cannot recall any pay-per-view initiatives. Given that the peninsula's land was, until fairly recently, common land, and the historic sites and their immediate surrounds can never be owned by anyone but all of us, this most serious of privatisations disturbs me no end. - Yours, etc.,
John Morton, Evora Park, Howth, Co Dublin.