This article is from page 14 of the 2008-08-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE National Park and Wildlife Services (NPWS) has applied to Clare County Council to reconstruct an access bridge to one of Clare’s lake islands.
The NPWS has applied to build the bridge to Rabbit Island from Dro- more Wood Nature Reserve in Ruan.
The project will also include new hand railing.
According to the planning appli- cation submitted to Clare County Council on August 1, the site of the project is located within a special area of conservation and within in an natural heritage reserve. There is currently a pedestrian rope bridge accessing the island.
A decision is due on the applica- tion to reconstruct the bridge on Sep- tember 25, that will allow visitors to Dromore to access the island in comfort.
An area of approximately 400 hec- tares or 1,000 acres, Dromore was established as a nature reserve be- cause of the diversity and richness of its flora and fauna.
Its richness comes from its many different habitat types. These include a river, lakes, turloughs, callows (flodded meadows), limestone pave- ment, fen peat, reed beds and spe- cies-rich woodland.
The reserve has historical and ar- chaeological aspects. The 17th cen- tury O’Brien Castle is still standing by the lake edge. This is also the
sites of Cahermacrea Castle, Kilakee Church, two ring forts and a lime kiln. Two self-guiding nature trails of approximately one hour exist within the woodland and a section of the 140 kilometres Mid-Clare Way also passes through.
This loop overlaps on part of the Castle Nature Trail and the Mid- OETA ENE