This article is from page 4 of the 2012-02-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
PLANS have been put in motion which could see Lisdoonvarna transformed into Ireland’s first ever wellness town. Despite the closure of the famous Spa Wells facility in the town, more than 8,000 German visitors came to the North Clare town last year, to walk in the grounds of the famous magnesia, iodine and iron spa.
While details for the Wellness Town Project have yet to be announced, Lisdoonvarna Fáilte last Friday issued a tender, looking for applications for someone to steer the project.
Lisdoonvarna Fáilte is a communityowned trust which owns the Spa Wells Facility as well as a number of local community facilities including the North Clare Sports and Amenity Centre and the Pavillion Theatre.
While a spokesperson from Lisdoonvarna Fáilte declined to comment on any part of the new project, The Clare People understands that an application for funding for the new position of Wellness Town Animator has been lodged with a government funding authority and a decision in likely to be made in the next 10 days.
Should this funding be granted, a person will then be appointed to assess what needs to take place in Lisdoonvarna before it can be transformed into Ireland’s first wellness town.
The Spa Wells Centre itself has been closed for more than five years and it has been an aspiration of the local business community, and Lisdoonvarna Fáilte, to reopen that facility since then.
Hundreds of thousands of people have came to Lisdoonvarna to bathe and drink at the Spa Well since it became Ireland’s first Spa Well Centre in the middle of the nineteenth century.
According to documents lodged by Lisdoonvarna Fáilte, the Wellness Town Animator would be tasked to de- velop “a model and framework aimed towards launching and managing a wellness town concept focussed on, but not exclusive to, the town of Lisdoonvarna and the assets, facilities and lands under the control of Lisdoonvarna Fáilte”.
Over the last decade, Lisdoonvarna Fáilte have helped develop the North Clare Sports and Amenity Park into one of Clare’s foremost community venues.
Complete with a community childcare facility, a playground, all-weather pitches and a GAA field, the project has also seen the restoration of the Pavillion ‘Town Hall’ Theatre.