Ireland could be a paradise for walkers but we lack the consensus to put in place the necessary walking network, writes John G. O'Dwyer
Last week I completed the entire 45 km Burren Way walk, from Lahinch to Ballyvaughan, in a little over three hours. Impressed? Think I might be in with a shout for the 2004 Athens marathon?
Actually, I wouldn't. You see, my Burren Way conquest was done in some comfort. I left Lahinch by car searching for the walk start-point and instead found myself driving a maze of country roads until the route joined the main coastal roadway, having amazingly managed to avoid the Cliffs of Moher. A detour south is required - along a busy highway without a hard shoulder - if the walker is to visit our foremost natural attraction.
However, I drove north on the main road, following the "trail" past Doolin and Ballinalacken until, 27 km after leaving Lahinch, a gate barred the way. Here, my boots, at last, touched terra firma. And indeed my efforts were now well rewarded.
The fine green road descended into the Caher valley, climbed past the ancient fort at Catheranardurrish and then meandered pleasantly to rejoin the coast road 3 km outside Ballyvaughan. There was still a little road-walking, but I could forgive this minor blemish within a landscape where human activity has done so much to shape its stark uniqueness.
Less easy to forgive was the magnificence denied. Arguably the finest walk in the South of Ireland is the route from Hags Head to Doolin, via the Cliffs of Moher. It features in several international guide books, including Exploring the South of Ireland by Paddy Dillon and the Lonely Planet Guide, where it is described as the highlight of the Burren Way.
Unfortunately, it isn't part of the Burren Way anymore. Instead it has become another victim to ongoing access problems in the west of Ireland, with the present Burren Way now forced on to nondescript roads offering little to attract discerning walkers.
This contrasts sharply with the situation on the north Antrim coast. Here, I was able to follow the spectacular cliff-top walk from the Giants Causeway to Carrrig-a-Rede rope bridge. Similarly, Scotland's West Highland Way offers a way-marked route of 160 km linking some of the finest scenery in Scotland - including Loch Lomond and Glencoe. It uses disused railway lines, ancient drover roads and tracks in a most imaginative way to avoid the tarmac walking and the breathing of carbon monoxide car fumes so detested by ramblers.
We have, of course, an extensive network of way-marked walkways here, but - unlike the Highland Way - it is rare enough to encounter other walkers on these routes, as they are simply not attractive to ramblers from overseas.
As things stand, the majority offer far too much road-walking - often along main roads - interspersed with gloomy trails through boring stands of sitka spruce. This is no criticism of the volunteers who put these routes in place but simply reflects the impossibility of showing Ireland to best advantage from our walkways, while the present access impasse continues.
The result has been that in a period when overseas visitor numbers to Ireland doubled, Bord Fáilte figures show that international visitors coming to participate in hiking and walking actually declined from 322,000 in 1993 to 266,000 in 1999. By 2001 this figure had declined further and stood at 241,000, with less than 4 per cent of our international visitors now attracted to Ireland by the appeal of rambling our countryside.
Meanwhile, Wales gets well over two million such visitors. Yet Ireland is arguably superior as a walking destination - it could actually be a paradise for walkers, but we lack the consensus to put in place the walking network necessary to support a concerted marketing campaign.
International visitor numbers to Ireland have fallen since 2000 and rural tourism, outside of our honey-pot destinations, has declined disproportionately. Clearly we can no longer afford continued Government evasion of necessary nettle-grasping on the access issue. A good start would be a request to our farming organisations to accept in principle that the Irish countryside is part of our shared heritage and that wider society has a right to reasonable and responsible access for recreational purposes.
On unfenced areas there should be a general right to roam at will. Walking routes, however, are linear and will in some cases involve large numbers of walkers having recourse to areas of enclosed land, with consequent unavoidable disruption to farming systems. At the very busiest locations - where volumes are such as to be incompatible with existing farming practice - shouldn't we now consider outright purchase by the State, taking as an example the ownership by the National Trust of the Antrim coastal walkway?
State ownership of our finest walking routes - such as along the Cliffs of Moher - should certainly prove a welcome addition to our tourism infrastructure, appearing to offer excellent value for money when compared with our 1990s' mania for investing in visitor centres - the vast majority now attracting fewer than 10,000 visitors annually.
Of course, outright purchase is not the solution in all cases. Where a right-of-way does not already exist, and a walk route can coexist alongside agriculture, it would seem equitable that farmers are given a one-off payment in return for a public right of access. Other solutions might involve adopting the UK model for our national parks. These parks consist mostly of privately owned land. Landowners must abide by additional planning regulations, but in return receive enhanced State support, which is conditional on facilitating access to the public for leisure pursuits.
In the end, however, the real solution to the access problem lies with an understanding of inter-dependence among rural-dwellers. It is in everybody's interest that a vibrant rural tourism industry exists alongside agriculture and that our visitors have access to the countryside, so that they can empathise with and understand rural living. This point was succinctly made by archeologist Michael Gibbons when he said: "Walking the countryside encourages our continental visitors to buy Irish beef and butter when they go home."