€8m Glenfarne project is "huge" for north Leitrim

Funding for a €7.94m Glenfarne Wood Project was applied for this week by the local authority with 90 per cent of the funding being sought from the Department of Rural and Community Development. The council is set to contribute €240,000 if the project is successful.

The project will include a boardwalk, a playground, a sensory trail and new car parking facilities as well as designated forest bathing locations. 

The Glenfarne Wood Project is the second largest regeneration project being proposed by Leitrim County Council (in conjunction with Coillte) Bernard Greene, Senior Planner told members at a special meeting this week. 

Cllr Sean McDermott, who has long campaigned to see the project brought to fruition, said the amount of work that has gone into the project is "enormous" and praised the council and Coillte for the "speed of it."

He noted there has been an objection to the boardwalk but said that "you only have to look at Drumshanbo and see what the boardwalk has done for there. Then there is a Coillte boardwalk beside Blacklion and that has had a great impact in that area."

He added the proposed development would enhance the existing amenities in Glenfarne. "We are utilising the history of Glenfarne forest and lake to our benefit and will get a lot more people coming from Northern Ireland stopping off in Leitrim. It's a north Leitrim project and will have a huge impact in the whole region and it's the first time money like that was spent in a really rural area. It's on the main thoroughfare from Belfast to the west of Ireland and not far from airports so it's perfectly located."

With the return of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, Cllr McDermott added that he felt "it really is a cross-border project because we border Cavan and Fermanagh".