Cong to Westport Lost Treasures Trail ‘can be Ireland’s Camino’

TREASURE TRAIL  The proposed route for the Lost Treasures Trail from Cong to Westport.

Proposed walking trail would link Ballinrobe, Moorehall and Ballintubber to Cong and Westport

Feature
Edwin McGreal

Ambitious plans for a 50km pilgrim path running from Cong to Westport have the potential to be ‘Ireland’s Camino’.
That’s according to Padraig Philbin, Mayo County Council’s Head of Tourism. The council are the lead authority on the project.
Philbin feels the path, which will connect Croagh Patrick, Westport, Ballintubber Abbey, Moorehall, Ballinrobe and Cong Abbey, has huge potential and drew the comparison with the world famous Camino de Santiago pilgrim path in northern Spain.
“We’re looking at a Camino- type experience,” Padraig Philbin told The Mayo News. “It has huge potential. Tourists come to Westport and they come to Cong, but there is no real connection between them.
“The area in between has loads of offerings and if we develop a high-quality walking route, similar to the camino, with the cultural and spiritual attractions and the high-quality landscape experiences that exist along the way, we think it will be very popular and a first for Ireland,” added Mr Philbin.
With discussions yet to take place with landowners, no precise route has been tied down just yet, but the plans include capitalising on existing routes along the way, including the Tochar Padraig from Croagh Patrick to Ballintubber and the Bowers Walk in Ballinrobe.
Central to the plans is the incorporation of several popular tourism sites along the way, combined with the development of many other ‘Lost Treasures’.
The established sites include Croagh Patrick, the heritage town of Westport, the heritage village of Aughagower and its round tower, Ballintubber Abbey, Moorehall and Lough Carra, Ballinrobe and Cong Abbey and the heritage village of Cong.
Some of the ‘Lost Treasures’ Mayo County Council is seeking to develop along the route include the recently discovered early Bronze Age boats on Lough Corrib, ruins of abbeys in Aughagower and Burriscarra and Church Island in Lough Carra.
The Lost Treasurers Trail received €56,000 for technical assistance to develop the project from the Rural Regeneration  and Development Fund (RRDF), announced by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring, last February.

Synergy of projects
The plans supplement a number of other developments currently ongoing, including a €3 million development at Ballintubber Abbey (see below), plans for the town regeneration of Ballinrobe and the restortion of Moorehall.
Titled ‘re-imagining historic Ballinrobe’, the council received €825,000 for town regeneration in Ballinrobe, announced by Minister Ring from the RRDF in February. Plans include improving the overall built heritage within Ballinrobe, with a focus on the restoration of key historic buildings, engineering and industrial heritage.
Initial restoration work will focus on Ballinrobe Market House (courthouse building), Ballinrobe Library and the Bowers Canal. SiobhΡn Sexton, a conservation architect with Mayo County Council, is heading up these plans.
Padraig Philbin feels Ballinrobe can benefit greatly from both the regeneration plans and those for the Lost Treasurers Trail.
“Ballinrobe is a real winner here. If people are walking from Cong to Westport, there will be one or two nights overnight along the way, and Ballinrobe should benefit from that,” he said.
Also central to the plans is Moorehall, which Mayo County Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Service jointly took over in 2018 . The two bodies plan to develop it with the adjoining Lough Carra as a ‘nationally important nature reserve and cultural tourism attraction’.
Working hand-in-hand with Philbin on these plans is local man Robert Coyne, an executive engineer with Mayo County Council.
The council argues Moorehall has potential thanks to the famous history of the Moores and the fact the house, the grounds and the adjoining Lough Carra represent a ‘strategically important site for nature conservation’, with the Georgian house in Moorehall being home to one of our smallest animals, the lesser horseshoe bat.
Project partners with Mayo County Council include the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Ballintubber Abbey Trust, Carnacon Community Development Association and South West Mayo Development Association.
Mr Philbin says that the €56,000 funding allows the council to proceed further with the plans, with the next stages being the completion of a masterplan for Moorehall, the progression of plans for Ballintubber Abbey along with technical and environmental studies and identifying a precise route for the Lost Treasures Trail.