Council official allays concerns about future of Keem Bay Skywalk

ROOM WITH A VIEW A digital design of what the proposed Achill Skywalk may look like when it is developed.

Anton McNulty

AN official with Mayo County Council allayed concerns that plans for a Wild Atlantic Way Discovery Point on Achill Island are being delayed due to environmental reasons.
Last March an ambitious proposal to build a Skywalk which will allow the public to walk on a glass floor overhanging the Atlantic near Keem Bay was revealed to the public. In the intervening 12 months there has been little progress on the matter with local councillor Paul McNamara airing his concern at a meeting that environmental issues may be scuppering plans for the discovery point.
However, Padraig Philbin, Senior Executive Engineer with Mayo County Council, who is overseeing the project, told The Mayo News that the delays were due to a procedural issue and nothing to do with environmental concerns.
“There has been a delay in obtaining a grant from FΡilte Ireland who will only give the go-ahead following the completion of a process of delivering to best international practice the generic sites along the Wild Atlantic Way. That has just been completed and we expect to get the go ahead for the grant in the near future which could be in a couple of weeks. That has been the cause of the delay and we have no concern otherwise with the project,” he said.

Birds
Cllr McNamara raised the issue at yesterday’s monthly meeting of the West Mayo Municipal District where he called for an up to date report on the project. He said the people of Achill had welcomed the project and he was concerned it may be delayed or reduced.
“I hope there are no environmental issues going on here or that they have discovered that a bird stops off here for a rest before flying off to America, which will up skittle the project. The people of Achill have welcomed this project...they have never seen a project like this proposed for Achill and it will bring us up the rung of the ladder in terms of tourism. I hope there hasn’t been an environmental issue which will prevent it going ahead,” he said at the meeting.
The other Discovery Point in Mayo is at Downpatrick Head near Ballycastle which the meeting heard attracted 34,802 people between January 1 and November 9 of last year.
Director of Services, Tom Gilligan, said the Discovery Point as planned could not take away from the experience the natural environment of the area already gives and should ensure visitors stay in the region. He said he would talk to FΡilte Ireland and ask for a full report at the next meeting.