By Dan Walsh at Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council meeting
The completion work on the Gorey-Courtown footpath was back on the agenda at last Tuesday’s December meeting of the Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council held in the Civic Centre, Gorey, and the proposal received the full support of members… however, there is one major obstacle in the way… crossing the historic Ballinatray Bridge!
Some members were furious at the suggestion that the footpath would be facilitated by a ‘STOP/GO’ operation on the bridge. “No way. That cannot happen, We cannot have a STOP/GO system on such a busy road in and out of Courtown” stated Cllr Anthony Donohoe, who received strong support from his colleagues.
It was agreed that the completion of the Gorey to Courtown footpath is a priority, a topographical survey is in progress, crossing the bridge will be actively addressed and a fresh presentation is anticipated at the January meeting.
WexfordLocal.com reported that “plans were previously discussed at the May 2018 meeting of the Gorey-Kilmuckridge Council when the course of the footpath was discussed in detail and faced a narrow passage over the historic Ballinatray Bridge over the Ounavarra River about a mile from Courtown Harbour.
For many years now the elected representatives have been strongly campaigning for the completion of a footpath between Gorey and Courtown which is being developed in stages, is more than half-way completed to date and is extremely popular and well used by the public.
WexfordLocal.com had seen draft plans by Wexford County Council that would see a spectacular new footbridge and it proposed to purchase private lands from the new owners of Courtown Woods to complete the scheme, however, it appears such plans came to nothing and are no longer active.
HISTORY; A work relief scheme organised by Lord Courtown in 1846 for the benefit of the starving poor consisted of drainage and the construction of a road southwards from Ballymoney crossroads to join Gorey and Courtown Harbour road.
In 1847, the present three-arch bridge at Ballinatray, once known as the Courtown Viaduct and at the time, was the highest stone bridge in the country.
Ballinatray Bridge is a 19th century civil engineering feat designed by James Barry Farrell, (1810-1893), who was the County Surveyor, and other similarly amazing works by him can be admired at Carrigmannon, (1844), near Killurin, and Corbally Bridge (1854) on the Enniscorthy to Oulart Road.
And for the record, Farrell was involved in the design of St Senan’s Hospital, near Enniscorthy, built in the 1860’s and now closed as a hospital and in private ownership.
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