Consultation underway for €20m Buncrana to Carndonagh greenway project

A planning application for a greenway between Buncrana and Carndonagh could be submitted as early as 2025.

The project to link the two towns, which is estimated to cost around €20m, is to form part of the proposed Inishowen Greenway, an approximately 120 km-loop around the peninsula.

Planners are looking at route options including from Buncrana via Drumfires to Carndonagh or via Clonmany.

The final route of the greenway - which would mainly be used for recreational purposes by pedestrians, cyclists and people with impaired mobility - could follow sections of the former Buncrana to the Carndonagh branch line of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Line.

The line, which ran north from Buncrana to Clonmany, Ballyliffin and Carndonagh, closed in the 1930s.

Funding for the project is being provided by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

Greenways, such as the Great Western Greenway in Mayo which opened in 2011, are seen as a way of boosting visitor numbers to rural areas.

A study area for the greenway has been identified and a feasibility study is underway. The first of three public consultations on the project is open until May 12.

Speaking at the public consultant on the greenway, project manager John McGinty of Aecom consultants, said one of the objectives is to have the greenway “totally segregated from local roads and regional roads” as much as possible with the route of the former railway line “in the mix”.

He said the consultation is seeking “feedback from people in terms of constraints and other opportunities” and there will be an emphasis on tourism and recreation.

“It falls into what do people want to see,” he said, with coastal routes and the possibility of taking the greenway close to Dunree among the options for the final route that will be considered.

Options for the route are expected to go out to consultation in the autumn, he said, and an emerging preferred route corridor is expected to be selected by spring 2024.

An application for planning to An Bord Peanála would then be made in 2025 or 2026.

Mr McGinty said the estimated cost for the completed project would be in the region of €20m, depending on the route selected.

The Muff to Three Trees greenway, which is part of the cross-border Northwest Greenway Project, and is one section of the proposed Inishowen greenway, is out to tender and work is due to begin before the end of the year.

The Muff section of the Derry to Muff greenway was completed last summer.

The Bridgend to Buncrana and Newtowncunningham greenway has been removed from the Northwest Greenway Project.

Donegal County Council said it intends to appoint technical consultants for the project in the coming months.

Dara Kerrane, executive engineer with Donegal County Council, said all such schemes take “several years” to get to the planning stage.

“These projects are a big draw for tourism and there are a lot of benefits,” he said.