The Wicklow Way, the oldest and busiest long-distance walking route in the Republic, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, writes Paul Cullen. Up to 24,000 people a year walk along the busiest sections of the Way each year, according to newly-compiled figures from the Wicklow Uplands Council.
However, this number falls to under 2,500 a year for the quietest stretches of the route, south of Glenmalure.
Other research indicates that while more than 80 per cent of walkers are Irish, a significant minority are visitors, mostly from Continental Europe.
The Way has spawned a small but, in the rural context, significant tourism industry for about 30 accommodation providers in Wicklow and Carlow.
"It has worked out amazingly well," says Joss Lynam, chairman of the National Waymarked Ways Advisory Committee and a member of the original group that developed the route back in the late 1970s.
"At the start, we didn't have a clue what we were doing. No one had any experience of waymarked ways. We didn't know how erosion would affect things and we didn't even have insurance. We were totally naïve."
Helen Lawless, development officer of the Mountaineering Council of Ireland says the Wicklow Way and other waymarked routes play a valuable role in getting people outdoors while keeping pressure off fragile environment higher up.
Walking writer JB Malone first published a concept for a Wicklow Way in 1966 but it took the later development of the Ulster Way to spur a sense of rivalry south of the Border. "They had one, so we had to have one too. It was the spirit of the times," Lynam recalls.
It soon became apparent that too many obstacles lay in the way of the proposed round-Ireland route so the group decided to concentrate on specific areas, starting with Wicklow.
The Wicklow Way was opened in three sections, starting in 1981, and now stretches 132km from Marlay Park in Rathfarnham to Clonegal in Co Carlow.
In its leisurely traverse of the largest expanse of upland in the State, the Way passes through private and public land, forest and farm, and by spectacular rivers, lakes, mountains and waterfalls. It also skirts new housing estates and one-off housing plonked in the countryside, various illegal dumps used by fly-tippers and the environmental carnage that is Coillte's tree-felling policy.
It is still a beautiful route in any weather and at any time of the year, as I rediscovered when travelling the route again last month. The views of Powerscourt, Lough Tay and Glendalough were breathtaking. Encounters with traffic and urban noise were mercifully few.
For the first time, I saw a native red squirrel in Crone Wood and a deer leaped right into my path not much further on. I also saw burnt-out cars abandoned down forest tracks, numerous plastic bags dumped over fences and, in a peaty pool of the Glencree river too alluring not to swim in, a floating collection of abandoned beer bottles.
A new sign marking the halfway point near Laragh had been defaced with graffiti and in some parts, there were "keep out" signs and rolls of barbed wire on private land near the route.
Wind farms are also starting to make an appearance, I noted.
According to Cara Doyle of Wicklow Uplands Council, responsibility for maintaining the route and dealing with litter rests with individual landowners. Signage is now purchased centrally to save money. A new phone service to deal with dumping in upland areas is being developed.
Erosion is a serious problem in some parts. "A mistake was made in going too high by the side of Djouce, leading to serious erosion where people are diverting up to the summit," says Lawless.
Lynam says it wasn't envisaged that the Way would pass so near to Djouce; however, the lower ground to the east was in private hands and permission to cross it was not forthcoming
More recently, railway sleepers were laid to reduce the damage caused by walkers and environmental conservationists in Mountain Meitheal have repaired some of the path nearby.
There are now 31 waymarked ways around the State, though few of them are heavily used. In the North, the original Ulster Way has fallen into disuse, while some routes in Co Mayo have been dropped because they were not being maintained.
However, where there is active local involvement, as in Co Wicklow and the Ballyhoura Way in Munster, the routes have proved more successful.