River Lee Nature Walk and Cycle Way
The new year will bring some interesting projects to Tralee which will without doubt help to keep the tourists coming. One of those developments is the brand new “River Lee Nature Walk and Cycle Way”. The first 1.5km-section of this way will connect O’Hara Bridge just next to the aquadome at Ballyard with the also new Castlemorris Park in Ballymullen and is planned to cost almost 600,000€. Once phase 2 of the project is completed you will be able to walk or cycle even further, for the way will then take you as far as Ballyseedy Wood some kilometres east of the town.
Although the building site may not look very much nature-like right now you can expect this to change soon. As the way follows the River Lee flood plains there will surely be a lot to discover and to understand what you see will be easy with the information panels that will be placed along the route together with seating and fishing stands. As you can see on the picture there is also work going on on the railtracks of the Tralee-Dingle Steam Railway, which could unfortunately not operate during the last season due to technical reasons. As I heard they will be back this year, and I think they even have a spare engine now to make sure everybody who wants to take the ride from Ballyard to Blennerville will be able do so.
And finally: right on the other side of the street (facing seawards opposite the Aquadome) there are also works underway to restore the old stone bridge and the flood pond below. You can easily see what has been done already when you take a look at the big picture at the top of tralee.org. I took that one almost two years ago and the bridge was concealed under thick vegetation and inaccessible at that time. What the old bridge looks like now can be seen on the picture above. I’m sure this will be another nice place when the landscaping has finished.
It’s great to see the Lee valley comming back to life and the walkway along the bank of the river Lee will be an excellent addition to the project as a whole. Might I suggest that an information booklet containing information about the fish life formerly present, and still surviving in the river Lee would be of interest?..I have fished in the Lee and studied it’s various fish life for forty years and, for my own interest, I have written an account of what I learned during this time. However, I would be more than willing to offer as my contribution to the excellent work being carried out on the Lee and it’s environs, a description of the fish which this river once held and in many cases still holds to this day. This would include information on Salmon, Sea trout [white trout] and brown trout. I have fortunately, some photos of river Lee salmon and sea trout which in the case of salmon, are undoubtedly the only ones in existance. It might surprise people to realise that the river Lee salmon are not extinct, yet! and even last winter 2007-2008, I observed a few salmon spawning in their traditional spawning areas far upriver on the Lee… If there is any interest in this project I would be more than happy to oblige and, to be honest there are not many, or perhaps any other people left who could provide this information with complete acccuracy. Again I congatulate all concerned with undertaking such excellent work.
Comment by Tim Mc Caffrey — May 11, 2008 @ 11:45 pm
[…] Hotel has already been completed and “unofficially” opened weeks ago (read more here) there had still been a gap to be closed. The final part of aprox. 200 metres was particularly […]
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