A proposed greenway would link Greystones to Wicklow, along a tarmac track between the railway line and sea, facilitating easy access to buggies, wheelchairs, bicycles as well as walkers. One aim is to encourage more visitors to Kilcoole and Newcastle, though both lie some distance inland, in addition to the towns at each end. (Other greenways have been successful in this regard.) Sounds idyllic. BUT. The plan shows tarmac tracks surrounded by short mown grass. Currently, one can already walk from Greystones to Wicklow along a track that winds between sandy hills, covered with a profusion of summer wild flowers, including Pyramidal Orchid, Sea Bindweed, Sea Holly, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, which all provide habitat and food for butterflies and moths such as Clouded Yellow, Common Blue,
Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Six Spot Burnet Moth and birds such as Meadow Pipits and the declining Skylark. The route passes the nationally important Little Tern colony and the East Coast Nature Reserve. In winter, walkers continue to enjoy the Murrough and a plethora of wildfowl attracts birdwatchers and wildlife enthusiasts to the area. If the proposed plan goes ahead, this oasis of biodiversity will be lost. Gone. Forever. Replaced by a flattened, suburban scape, of which there are already so many. The idea is good, the proposed route is not. Then there is the issue of coastal erosion….