Upgrades for Clough’s trails
Government funding announced by Minister Calleary
Cloughjordan is to receive €60,000 for the long-awaited timber walkway repairs and upgrade at Scohaboy Bog SAC. The ‘bog-bridge’ walkway to the viewing platform was originally installed in 2013 as part of an EU/LIFE restoration project between Coillte Forest and the Cloughjordan Community Development Association and had deteriorated naturally to the point of closure on health and safety grounds.
The grant award will also cover the costs of replacing the footbridge over the Silver Stream that allows site access. The walkway at Scohaboy is a highly valued and popular for amenity and nature resource and its closure this past year has been a big loss to many. The upgrade will allow for the reopening of the full Loop of Laghile and Loughaun National Trail which uses the ‘bog-bridge’ infrastructure to traverse the Northern end of the bog before linking back into Boreen and forest roads within the adjacent Sopwell Woodlands.
In 2025, Coillte created a new trailhead and car parking area at Laghile and Sopwell Woodlands which allows for better and more direct access to the forest trails. In partnership with Coillte, the Cloughjordan Community Development Association have also applied for funding to develop a new walking trail at the car park that will connect with existing forest road network and create a new looped walk for all to enjoy.
The CCDA are regarded as a leading Community Trail Management Organisation nationally and the volunteer group also developed and manage with Coillte the very popular looped walking trails in Knockanacree Woodlands on Cloughjordan’s Northern edge.
The grant award to Cloughjordan is part of a €3m funding package for Coillte recreational sites in 2026, with €3.13m invested in new trail infrastructure and ongoing maintenance works across 224 sites nationwide.
Announcing the latest round of funding, Minister Calleary highlighted the conclusion of the current partnership with Coillte, which has been provided to “support and maintain Coillte’s wonderful recreation forests and amenities around the country”.
Minister Calleary added: “As well as being used to maintain and develop Coillte’s trail network and recreation amenities, this funding has also supported Coillte’s engagement with local communities and recreation groups right across the country. These forests are great assets that visitors and local communities enjoy on a daily basis, and they are a hugely important element of the outdoor recreation sector in Ireland.”
Scohaboy Bog is one of the most important sites of its kind in the Atlantic region of the EU. The raised bog restoration programme at Scohaboy Bog SAC at 1500 acres, is regarded as one of Ireland’s most successful community supported ‘for climate, nature and people’ projects involving an award winning collaboration between the CCDA, NPWS, Coillte Forest and 52 private landowners. Irish raised bogs are said to be the EU’s oldest ‘near nature’ landscapes, the intact high bog area forming an unbroken link back to the last ice-age, 10,000 years ago.
Welcoming the award, Gearóíd Ó Foighil, Chair of the CCDA, commented: “Raised bogs are Ireland’s most important carbon stores. The blocking of old drains and the installation of close to 16kms of specialised peat bunding construction has allowed the water table to rise and ‘lock-in’ the bogs existing carbon, a crude estimate of which is that the amount of carbon being saved is equivalent to taking all of Cloughjordan’s cars off the road! Rewetting Scohaboy also benefits nature by providing valuable new habitat for the sites unique and irreplaceable natural heritage to expand and thrive.”
The grant award has also been welcomed by Ryan O’Meara, TD and the CCDA thank him for all his support and advocacy work on this. A big thank you must go too to Rosaleen Ní Shúilleabhain, Coillte Recreation Manager for all her effort in organising the respective surveys and project resources.