*Raheen Woods has emerged as a preferred route along the Greenway.
A 43km greenway linking Limerick City and East Clare is to be opened up in stages with officials optimistic 95 percent of the land used will be publicly owned.
Contracts were signed four years ago in June 2021 for the Limerick to Scariff Greenway with local elected represenetatives critical that the project lost momentum and direction along the way.
Senior officials in Waterways Ireland have remained committed to the development of the Greenway and expect to lodge planning permission for the first section in the second quarter of 2026.
There are five sections to the proposed Greenway. Section 1 leads from Limerick City to Black Bridge, Section 2 is from Black Bridge to O’Briensbridge, Section 3 leads from here to Killaloe, Section 4 is from Killaloe to Tuamgraney and the final section is from Tuamgraney to Scariff.
All sections will not be completed in chronological order. Section 2 will be completed first followed by Section 5, Section 1, Section 3 and Section 4. Work will commence on Section 5 once planning is granted for Section 2.
Western regional manager with Waterways Ireland, Brian Treacy briefed elected members of the Killaloe Municipal District with a progress report for the Greenway. He said consultation has occurred for the project but acknowledged “albeit some time has passed since our last consultation”. The 43km Greenway is funded under Transport Infrastructure Ireland guidelines “which means we need to follow the TII steps”. Information evenings will be held before planning applications are lodged for various 8-10km sections, he said.
Completion of a TII peer review is the current focus of the project team and they have been working on this for the past nineteen months. “We have made progress, it is taking time but a lot of this assessment was critical to the project progressing, we have a review meeting to address final issues for December but we’ve got approval from TII to begin a phased delivery”. The peer review is for the entire scheme.
Engineer John Jones “spent a few months in Dublin” having worked on this project “for years” but is now back steering the Greenway. He said the hope for the preferred route of Section 2 will be along the existing Errinagh Canal which he described as “an old disused canal which is about 15km in length, it is at the rear of Thomond Village in UL and it heads all the way to Clonlara village”.
For section three, the preferred route is along the existing regional road from O’Briensbridge to Killaloe, Jones outlined, this will also include some lands owned by ESB towards Ardclooney.
On section four, he expects that the Greenway will join the new bypass and come out by Two Mile Gate “and head towards Scariff along the regional road, we will go through Raheen Woods or the existing road to Tuamgraney”. Various routes are to be examined, he added, one included going along the banks of Lough Derg with another overhead Ogonnelloe. “We are looking at utilising publicly owned lands in the first place, we’d envisage 95% of the Greenway will be in publicly owned lands”.
Six viewing points will be in situ in East Clare, “before you come to Caher, the viewing area is going to be special,” Jones promised.
Treacy said planning authorities are happy with their approach of breaking the Greenway into sections. He explained, “by delivering the project in a phased manner we will see sections of the Greenway open and accessible in a much shorter timeframe. Each phase forms part of the overall 43km Greenway but has its own stand-alone economic benefits”.
Waterways Ireland will develop the planning submission for the section between Black Bridge and Errinagh Bridge. The land is owned by Waterways Ireland and Brian outlined they aim to lodge a planning application in the second quarter of 2026 and “commence works as soon as planning is granted. The idea is to see something happening on the ground rather than coming back in twelve months to say we’re doing more assessments”.
Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) said it was “great to see progress”. He noted the “difficulties along the way” and questioned if community groups were involved and notified in areas like O’Briensbridge where they have developed and maintained areas. “We are in constant communication with groups in the area,” Treacy confirmed.
Further detail on the Section 3 route was sought by Cllr O’Brien, “When you leave the Parteen Weir, you’re coming along ESB lands, the preferred route seems to me to be running adjacent or on the regional road from O’Briensbridge to Tuamgraney. Are we talking about building a new piece of infrastructure or use existing infrastructure”. Treacy replied, “That is the reason for wanting to get into phased delivery, the devil is in the detail. It is along the phased road. The County Council have said they will work with us, at the moment it is going up the road corridor”.
On the impact to landowners, Cllr O’Brien questioned if there would be “minimum or little or no disruption” to which Treacy stated, “As little as possible, CPO is not something we will be going down the road of, minimum or as little as possible”. He said ESB have “offered up lands to use, there are areas they have concern with but also areas they have said we can use”. Jones advised, “A number of landowners in the area have approached us who have said they will engage with us if we do have difficulties”.
Remarking that the invite for the briefing had been “out for a while,” Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) stated of Section 3, “it is not going to the top of Ogonnelloe or towards the lake which is disappointing from the aesthetic point of view” to which Treacy flagged, “Cost and land has been prohibitive”. Cllr Hayes added, “We’re debating the end of the footpath into Tuamgraney and how we finish it, we’ve got €350,000 to finish it, if we had planned this right, we should have put the footpath to the standard of a greenway from Killaloe to Scariff, I’d say it cost €1m and I asked why not bring to the standard of a Greenway”.
On the phased approach, Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) asked “how far is it down the road”. Treacy stated, “we are seeking planning as we go along, the idea is we don’t tie up consultants on the design for the full phase. The planning applications will still reference the whole project and will have standalone merit on its own”.
Black Bridge to O’Briensbridge’s section will have a construction period of three to four months if successful with planning, Treacy outlined. “With a fair wind, if we got planning in the middle of next year, I’d hope that by end of 2027 we’d have phase one delivered”.
Use of public land as much as possible “is encouraging, it is great to connect the heart of Limerick City with the heart of East Clare,” commented Cllr O’Callaghan. Cyclists and pedestrians will be accommodated with a width of three metres the target along the route.
“43km would be a nice cycle but it would be a fair long walk of a Sunday,” quipped O’Callaghan. Officials assured the Kilmurry man that loops would be provided in each section.
Cathaoirleach of the Killaloe MD, Cllr Pat Burke (FG) was confident the Greenway would bring visitors and tourists from Limerick City to East Clare. “Inis Cealtra is big visitor attraction but people can’t continue their cycle unless they go to the regional road”.
Adding an additional aspect to the section while the peer review is ongoing “would add time to where we are,” Treacy replied. He said Waterways Ireland were “fully committed to the Inis Cealtra project as a whole” and added that when the section to Tuamgraney was built “there is nothing to say we can’t look at adding another section”.
Querying the final section from Tuamgraney to Scariff, Cllr Hayes asked, “am I perceiving that you are coming into Raheen and going offroad and a preferred route is to go from the river to Reddan’s Quay” to which Jones confirmed he was correct.
Maghera native Hayes questioned where the section was going off road. “Our preferred route is Raheen Woods back to Tuamgraney, we have to speak to landowners, we have spoken to some, those discussions were previous to this year. When we move forward to more detail, we have to have more discussions,” Jones replied.
“I like the idea of going off-road,” admitted Cllr Hayes. Engineer Jones advised, “In public consultation there’s merits in off-road and on-road, we had a number of strong recommendations to stay as close to the road as possible on safety who wanted people near them but there’s another aspect of wanting to be out in the fresh air”.
Officials were asked by Cllr Conor Ryan (FG) if they had conducted an environmental survey. “We have done a lot of environmental evaluations. We have quite a number of SECs and SPAs in the area, we feel we have a suitable balance got, our own ecologists have looked at this, the next step is to look at each section. We have a lot of the groundwork done,” Treacy replied.
Cllr Ryan then asked if they expected any delays. “I have asked the question of ecologists, they believe we can prepare in three or four months, I can’t guarantee it but it is feasible,” Treacy replied. Detail of the proximity of the greenway to the road was then sought by Cllr Ryan. “We have to consider flooding and environmental sensitivity, we will try get a balancing act. It will have to be a sensitive balance,” Treacy said.
Senior engineer in the Killaloe MD, Declan Flanagan said, “It is a good news story that the ball is rolling and we have a piece of infrastructure to deliver. A 43km project is a huge task, it takes a lot of time, it is slow moving progress but it is great to see it coming, it will support O’Briensbrdge, Killaloe, Scariff and Tuamgraney for coffee shops and visitors to the area”. He asked if an overall estimated timeline was available.
“I can put a tangible timeline on section one because we have the ball rolling,” Treacy responded. “Into the other phases, there’s landowner negotiation albeit there won’t be many, I can’t guarantee those and also pinch points along roads that will require agreement. I find it hard to put timeline on full stage, when we get planning for phase one, it will be a different team building it on the ground so the consultant working will go into section two and three”.
