Tag Archives: Lough Derg

New canoe facilities and services blocks have been provided at Dromaan Harbour in Whitegate as part of a regional initiative aimed at promoting water-based activities on Ireland’s third largest lake. The Lough Derg Canoe Trail, an initiative of the Lough Derg Marketing Group and funded under the Lough Derg Stimulus Fund, aims to provides for new facilities at Killaloe, Ballycuggeran, and Scariff, Mountshannon and Dromaan harbours. The design and development of the trail project is being led by Waterways Ireland in partnership with Clare County Council, Galway County Council and Tipperary County Council. Councillor Pat Burke from Whitegate, Leas Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, has welcomed the completion of works at Dromaan Harbour which he described as “a hidden gem” in the Lough Derg Region. The completed works at the Clare County Council owned harbour facility include trail information signage, a canoe storage rack and screening, and a new 3-unit service block and holding tank. The Lough Derg Canoe Trail …

THE Blueway concept is coming to Lough Derg in the summer of 2018. This will provide an opportunity to showcase the lake area, increase the recreational use of the lake by residents and visitors, generate additional tourism into the area and add value to the existing tourism services. A recent series of Blueway capacity building workshops, for local tourism providers and communities, have helped to shape this local Blueway initiative. These workshops were well attended and a lot of valuable information was gathered from this consultation process.  There will be one more Blueway Development workshop on  June 20 at the Abbey Court Hotel in Nenagh at 7pm.

CLARE County Council has confirmed that it has received 18 written submissions to the Draft Inis Cealtra Visitor Management and Sustainable Tourism Development Plan. Submissions were made by members of the public and statutory authorities to the draft plan and the associated strategic environmental assessment, the habitats directive assessment and the strategic flood risk assessment. The process of reviewing and considering these submissions is underway. When it is complete, the draft plan will be amended to become the final plan. Brian McCarthy, senior planner, outlined the details on foot of a motion by Councillor Pat Burke. He asked the local authority to detail the number of submissions received from the public following the launch of the draft plan and to outline the next steps in the process. Mr McCarthy said, “It is intended that the Inis Cealtra Visitor Management and Sustainable Tourism Development Plan will be presented to the local community in July 2017, thus concluding the plan-making process”. Councillor …

A series of remedial measures are needed to improve the water quality in Lough Derg, a major €500,000 angling project has revealed. Dr Fran Igoe, who is one of the promoters involved in a ground-breaking 10-year research programme into native Lough Derg fish species, claimed the water quality of the lake is mostly moderate to poor, with only a few sections classified as good. The regional co-ordinator for the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office Southern Region said water quality needs to be improved by involving all stakeholders in forestry, agriculture, wastewater treatment systems and septic tank owners. “Water quality in the lake underpins angling and tourism. It is important that people join the dots, so a better appreciation develops on the importance of managing the land near the lake properly,” Dr Igoe noted. The status of the lake and contributing rivers is based on a combination of water quality and habitat. The study noted that the quality of the …

The role played by three local authorities, including Clare County Council, in developing and promoting tourism in the Lough Derg region has received official recognition at the 2017 Irish Tourism Industry Awards. The Lough Derg Marketing Group (LDMG) was named Best Local Authority Tourism Initiative at an event in Dublin on Friday night attended by Minister for Tourism Shane Ross. The Lough Derg Marketing Group was set up to develop Lough Derg as a key visitor destination. Its membership includes Clare County Council, Tipperary County Council, Galway County Council, Waterways Ireland, Inland Fisheries Ireland, community development organisations, and business and trade representatives. The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC), the umbrella group for the tourism industry in Ireland, organises the Irish Tourism Industry Awards in conjunction with Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. Designed with the intention of rewarding innovation and excellence in tourism, 14 winners were selected from approximately 250 entries.

THE Lough Derg region is to benefit from a €200,000 fund to market, develop and promote the Lough Derg Blueway, which includes the soon-to-be completed Lough Derg Canoe Trail. The funding boost was announced by Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys and is to be spread across the Scariff and Nenagh rural economic development zones (REDZ). Under the 2016 REDZ scheme, just over €5.3 million was approved for 41 projects, of which eight were local authority-led projects impacting on the wider waterway network. They included Scariff/Nenagh on Lough Derg, from Bagnelstown on the Barrow to Banagher on the Shannon and Ballinamore on the Shannon-Erne Waterway. Minister Humphreys said, “The REDZ scheme aims to improve links between rural towns and their hinterlands to stimulate activity at a local level. It is one of a number of schemes that my department has been rolling out to boost economic activity and improve living standards across rural Ireland.” Managed …

Low water levels on Lough Derg led to a 34ft cruiser with four people on board running aground yesterday afternoon by the Scilly Islands, off the Ogonnelloe shore. At 1.39pm, the Lough derg RNLI lifeboat launched with helm Ger Egan, Lian Knight and Delia Ho on board.  The lifeboat located the vessel at the junction of Scariff Bay and Parker’s Point at 1.54pm. The four people on board were safe and unharmed and wearing their lifejackets. Once the lifeboat crew were satisfied the vessel was not holed, it was taken off the rocks and into safe water. The cruiser continued its onward journey once drives and rudder were found to be undamaged and in good working order. Peter Kennedy, Deputy Launching Authority at Lough Derg RNLI Lifeboat, has advised boat users to “to bring charts with you and know the areas close to shore and islands marked as un-navigatable, particularly as water levels are low in the lake at the …

LOUGH Derg and its Islands: A Voyage of Discovery by Road and by Water, is the latest publication by East Clare historian Gerard Madden and Tipperary man Shane Creamer. The book will be launched this Saturday at 8.30pm in the Mountshannon Hotel by Éanna Rowe of Waterways Ireland and contains the only map of Lough Derg showing all the access points to the lake by road. According to Gerard, to map out the whole lake to travel around it by road, you would need to buy three separate Ordinance Survey maps. “This is the first time where you have one map of Lough Derg showing all the access routes to the lake,” he said. It is also a great angling resource, as it names all of the known spots around the lake. The authors have also seen to it to name 376 of the islands on Lough Derg. To date, the Ordinance Survey Discovery Series only provides names for 113 …