Plans for the final section of Ireland’s longest off-road cycleway, the 150km Royal Canal Greenway from Dublin to Longford, have been submitted to An Coimisiún Pleanála, almost 15 years since the project began.
The last big missing link in the greenway will run from Castleknock in west Dublin to the Kildare border near Leixlip, a distance of 8km, and will be developed by Fingal County Council.
The route is designed to eventually extend to Galway, forming Ireland’s contribution to the EuroVelo Route 2 running across Europe to Russia.
The greenway extends across six local authority areas – Dublin City Council and Fingal, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath and Longford County Councils.
RM Block
Once the Fingal section is complete, cyclists will be able to travel on an off-road path along the canal from Dublin’s docklands to Longford or Athlone.
In 2012 Leo Varadkar, then minister for transport, announced plans for the construction of a 277km coast-to-coast greenway from Dublin to Galway, due to be completed in 2020.
The Dublin to Athlone route has been finished in stages since, and although some Dublin city paths require upgrades, all are accessible to cyclists. However, the 8km Fingal section had stalled, largely due to engineering difficulties associated with the “deep sinking” of a 2km stretch between Castleknock and Clonsilla where the canal is several metres lower than the towpath.
The council intends to resolve those issues by setting the route back from the canal bank in several places, as well as with the use of bridges and raised boardwalks.
At its eastern end, the new section will start where the Old Navan Road meets the canal, just west of the M50 aqueduct and east of the 12th lock in Castleknock.
The path will initially follow the south bank of the canal, linking to the existing route from Ashtown, but after just under half a kilometre a new 235 metre long cycle and pedestrian bridge will be built over the canal transferring the path to the north bank, where it will remain for the rest of the route.
After crossing the bridge the greenway will not run immediately along the canal bank, but slightly north through Brompton Green.
Most of the path on this section will have a paved/asphalt surface, with some stretches of elevated boardwalk and a small bridge running parallel to, rather than across, the canal spanning an old quarry close to Delwood Park.
After Kirkpatrick Bridge, near Coolmine train station, the route uses Sheepmoor Lane, again slightly set back from the canal, and an existing cyclepath through Windmill Court, followed by a new elevated boardwalk past Dr Troy Bridge. After Keenan Bridge, the route makes its way back towards the canal, slightly north of the existing towpath towards Lambourn Park in Clonsilla, where it runs on a cantilevered boardwalk right beside the canal bank towards Callaghan Bridge.
The route continues along the canal south of Hansfield Road, then moves away from the bank again into open space. After the Hansfield railway bridge, it travels along the existing towpath (which will be upgraded, although largely with gravel rather than a paved surface) until it meets the Kildare border, where it will join the Leixlip/Confey to Maynooth section, which was completed last year.
Submissions on the new application can be made to the planning commission until November 25th with a decision on the application expected early next year. Work is likely to take several years, but it is expected the route could open in stages, starting from the western/Kildare end.
The last cost estimates for the project, published in 2021, were in excess of €24 million. That will have increased considerably, but costs will not be known until the project goes to tender.
The preferred route for the Athlone to Galway greenway was selected in 2022, but has yet to progress.
