*Photograph: Eamon Ward
AN ECONOMIC injection into the towns and villages of North Clare can be provided if the new free Burren and Cliffs Explorer is a success.
For this year’s summer season, the Burren and Cliffs Explorer a free shuttle bus service will link towns and villages of North-West Clare with tourism sites in the locality. The shuttle bus has been running since last Thursday (May 1st) and will go until the end of August and potentially into September depending on its usage.
There are seven different routes on the service which is in operation from 09:00 to 18:15. Ballyvaughan, Carron, Corofin, Doolin, Kilfenora, Lahinch, Liscannor, Lisdoonvarna and Miltown Malbay are the towns and villages the Explorer will be stopping off at. It will also link in with tourism attractions such as the Cliffs of Moher Experience, Ailwee Burren Experience, Poulnabrone Dolmen, Caherconnell Stone Fort & Sheepdog Demonstrations, the Michael Cusack Heritage Centre and the Burren National Park.
Director of Tourism Development with Clare County Council, Siobhán McNulty said the service is just as much designed for the locals as it is for visitors to the county. “We’re very excited to launch this initiative, it will hopefully help the growth of our towns and villages in North Clare, it provides an opportunity for the visitors and the locals alike to utilise the service but also to visit the Cliffs of Moher Experience site at no cost, it is a significant initiative and driver for people. Locals can equally use the bus to travel from Miltown Malbay to Lahinch for arguments sake, it is hoped that it will be a huge success, we’ve all our fingers and toes crossed that it will be”.
Detailed costs have not been provided by the Council on how much it has invested into the pilot project. “We’ve been so busy grappling to get a bus on the road that we haven’t the final details of cost but it will be a significant investment by Clare County Council, to be fair we’re quite prepared to do it, it is quite important that we support our towns and villages and that they grow on the back of nearly 1.5 million visitors coming to Co Clare to see this wonderful natural amenity, it is important there is a benefit across the county and Ireland for that, we’re hopeful that people will avail of this service and that it will be a success”.
For the Explorer to become more than a pilot project, the public must utilise the shuttle bus, she outlined. “This is a pilot initiative, we’re doing it on the fact that there will be people on the buses, if we’re running empty buses from A to B then that is in nobody’s interest and it becomes a loss-leader which is not something we will continue with, the pilot is to go on this for 2025 and hopefully it is a success, there will be tweaks and changes, we’ve added routes like the R480 which will pick up a number of businesses on that route to Caherconnell Fort, the Ailwee Experience, the Poulnabrone Dolmen, all those will benefit the tourism product of North Clare”.
For the nine towns and villages connected to the service, the aim is for them to experience a consequential economic lift, Siobhán told The Clare Echo. “The target is to see some economic activity develop on the back of this. If you look at Kilfenora as an example, hopefully there is an opportunity for a coffee shop or a small to medium enterprise to open on the back of having people who will have increased dwell time in Kilfenora, it is an opportunity for the communities to come together to promote their towns and villages to tourists who might never have heard of the area, now they can go and visit all the attractions that a place like Kilfenora offers, it is about supporting communities to grow their own products by having people in their locality who are not just passing through, they are there to avail of the services”.
