Madam, – I enjoyed Seán Mac Connell’s article about his expedition to Tibradden (Go, February 28th), Dublin even though I disagree with much of what he says.
He expresses some bewilderment that a forest with signs welcoming walkers should be fronted by a large car park that is blocked off. It has been so for at least ten years, thus forcing would-be walkers to park on a narrow, twisty road.
The reason is simple: according to Coillte, this and other forest car- parks in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains are scenes of anti-social behaviour and the simplest “solution” is simply to close them, or to drastically restrict their opening hours.
This is taking the line of least resistance: hit the compliant walker, not the criminal. (I am aware that Coillte has opened other forests with excellent facilities, but not nearly enough.)
If the authorities were serious about recreational use in these mountains close to Dublin, they would have greatly extended the Wicklow Mountains National Park towards the city, developed a network of short walks, provided sufficient car parking space at many more locations, encouraged a mountain bus service and done more work to improve the eroded network of informal paths.
It is quite obvious that the National Park authorities have very limited resources and what they have is earmarked for buying every square inch of land, in the absence of laws regulating public access to private land, such as apply in so many other jurisdictions.
Until there are legal changes, we will continue to limp along with minimal facilities, — Yours, etc,