Mountain Meitheal - Working with Coillte to promote sustainable Recreation Trails
In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the number of people taking to the outdoors to enjoy the solitude and challenge of our mountains and forests. This increasing pressure on the landscape is resulting in many of our trails showing the impact of feet and bike tyres, which, when you factor in the soft, peaty soil of Wicklow means ruts, gullies and scars on the landscape.
- 1 Bog Bridge Cruagh Forest
In early 2000, a group of Coillte workers, led by Bill Murphy, who was inspired by the maintenance work on the Appalachian Trail by volunteers, got together with the idea of undertaking small scale trail maintenance projects to protect both the environment and the recreation experience. Initially projects were small-scale but other mountain and forest users seeing the work were interested in becoming involved in trail maintenance and conservation. As an 'International Year of the Mountains' initiative, Coillte Meitheal held a "Come and Try" day on the Wicklow Way near Laragh in March of 2002 supported by the Mountaineering Council of Ireland and the Wicklow Uplands Council. Thirty-four volunteers came along and, supervised by Coillte Meitheal Volunteers, built 600 m of new route on the Wicklow Way, which is still as durable today as seven years ago. From the success of this day it was decided to amalgamate Coillte Meitheal into a new club and Mountain Meitheal was formed.
Description
Mountain Meitheal is now a voluntary, non-profit organisation with the following aims and objectives:
· To protect and conserve the mountain and forest environment by
repairing, maintaining and building mountain and forest trails while
maintaining the challenge for recreational users, and striving to preserve
a sense of solitude and a 'wilderness' experience;
· To spread an awareness of sustainable recreation;
· To provide enjoyable projects and activities for its volunteers.
Since then Mountain Meitheal has gone from strength to strength with over 70 subscribing members and a mailing list approaching 300 names. It operates a full programme from February to December of trail repair days and typical turnout at any day of between 15 and 20 volunteers.
Ongoing Projects
Mountain Meitheal is committed to protecting and conserving trails and in the last number of years has undertaken some interesting projects in partnership with Coillte and the Dublin Mountains Partnership. (Coillte is the lead agency in this partnership).
In 2008 Meitheal returned to Laragh to add an additional re- route of the Wicklow Way, this time taking the trail off a busy regional road and constructing a new sustainable trail through the forest. Not just content with a re-route, the trail is a show case of the "art" of trail building, with such features as bog bridge, buttress walls, turnpike and water bars in evidence. The trail features are interpreted by a trail head sign provided by Coillte allowing everyone to enjoy not just the trail but also see the techniques in use.
This interpretative trail is the first of its kind in Ireland and is an example of Mountain Meitheal not only building a sustainable trail but spreading an awareness of sustainable trail building methods .
In the Summer/Autumn of 2008, Mountain Meitheal constructed over 400m of stone stair case to harden the Wicklow Way in Curtlestown forest – and in Spring 2009 jointly hosted, along with Coillte, a tree planting day as part of National Tree Week to plant over 1000 birch adjacent to this trail.
In 2009, Mountain Meitheal continued to work with its partners, this time in the Dublin mountains where it constructed a bog bridge forming a new mountain access route in Cruagh forest . Continuing to promote sustainable recreation, Mountain Meitheal pioneered the development of simple overnight shelters / wild camping sites on long distance trails and, in 2009, added a second Adirondack style mountain shelter with support and permission from the Wicklow district . These shelters are an important development and support Coillte's effort to manage "wild" recreation camping by directing it to more robust areas of the forest.
Mountain Meitheal is now regarded as a "brand leader" in outdoor recreation volunteering and through working in conjunction with organisations like Coillte, the Dublin Mountains Partnership and walking clubs can and will continue to make an important contribution to outdoor recreation in Ireland.
More Information
For more information on Mountain Meitheal visit www.pathsavers.org
- 3 Finishing the Adirondack Shelter on Paddock Hill near Roundwood, County Wicklow.
