A GROUP in Doonbeg have developed a heritage trail featuring 29 points of interest around the Long Village.
It can be accessed at walking.doonbeg.info/heritage-trail/ and it features stories, pictures and archive records from the 1901 and 1911 censuses, along with school children’s stories and pictures.
Local resident Aisling Ryan said, “Burren Beo organised a heritage keeper’s course and on the back of it they gave us a little grant to go back to our community and develop a project. Three other ladies, Jacquie Wade, Elizabeth McEntee and Betty Condon, and myself put together this heritage trail.”
Describing the trail, she said, “The Heritage Trail has 29 points and each one is along a walking trail, it’s along flat terrain so it’s suitable for young and old. You use the map to click on a point and it gives you a small bit of information about the place, it might be a house that used to be an old shop, it might be the old well, or it might be the bridge and it gives you a little bit of information. It’s history light, it’s not supposed to be a big arduous read. There are some little challenges along the route as well for children, to keep them actively engaged on the trail.”
She said that some structures that are now gone are included.
“Some parts aren’t there any more, the forge isn’t for example, but there are pictures to bring it to life. We try to include a bit of text, photographs,along with links to the 1901 and 1911 census.”
The grant received allowed them to get some drone photography of historical buildings, giving a different perspective on familiar local landmarks.
She said the trail will hopefully give people something of interest locally. “The whole idea is to bring people into the village, give them something to do and find out a little bit about the place.”
The trail recently won a special recognition award.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.