independent

Wednesday 22 May 2013

A right mess

erection of gates and a pathway of slurry on a benbulben walkway has angered concerned locals

Benbulben story

"I WILL arise and go," wrote Nobel poet William Butler Yeats.

But climbing Benbulben, the iconic mountain he mentioned in his poems, and beneath which he is buried at Drumcliffe, might not be so easy.

And with the tourist season starting again, visitors are being "put off" climbing the mountain, it has been claimed.

That's because of a gate erected on a route used by walkers starting from the foot of the mountain at Barnarippon.

During the recent dry spell, slurry was spread on part of a roadway up the mountain, claimed locals, see picture. Further up the mountain is another gate.

Now, a local Bed & Breakfast owner says business is being affected.

Ian McMorrow, of Benbulben Farm B&B, said: "Our guests have been going up that way for 30 years plus. What is happening now is putting people off.

"Irish people might climb gates but people from other countries won't. It's not anyone's mountain to stop people going up.

"If you come in the Dublin Road to Sligo, the most iconic thing you see is the head of Benbulben Mountain.

"For there not to be a walkway up there is scandalous."

A recent District Court sitting in Sligo heard how €600,000 had been available to develop access up to Benbulben. But without the consent of local landowners, the project is not possible.

At the centre of the row is a dispute over whether or not a right of way exists on the route.

That case has been adjourned to October.

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