We’ve cracked it! We just collected the user data on the Greenway for the first quarter of this year, and are excited to announce that we have passed the 100,000 user mark! 102.056, to be exact!
Section 1, which opened in December 2013 has had 61,019 users to date, and Section 2, which opened in June 2014, has recorded 48,053 users
We’re glad you’re enjoying this wonderful facility 🙂
We had our first professional photoshoot along the Greenway last week – considering it was bitterly cold and we had to keep dodging deluges of rain of near-biblical proportions, we think they turned out rather well!
Thank you to Barry Doherty and family, Oliva Johnston Murphy and family, Jill Condell and family, and Mia the dalmatian (who wasn’t happy she didn’t get an easter egg for her trouble like everyone else!)
Have a look: http://wp.me/P4KY9p-5Y
Monaghan Rotary club are organising a 10.5km walk, run or cycle using the Ulster Canal Greenway to link up four fitness centres in the town.
The event takes place on Sunday 12th April. For more information, and to book your start time, contact one of the following:
The challenge
You will need, jogging or walking gear, and if you wish a bicycle & swim wear
Select one of the leisure centres as your home venue, where you will start and finish. You will need to decide in advance which method you want to use to get from venue to venue, as you will need to use the same method throughout.
1. Register at your home venue
2. Cycle or walk/run to the next venue
3. If you cycled use a treadmill or cross trainer for 20 minutes
If you walk/run use a spinning cycle for 10 minutes
4. Cycle or walk/run to the next venue
5. If you cycled use a treadmill or cross trainer for 20 minutes
If you walk/run use a spinning cycle for 10 minutes
6. Cycle or walk/run to the next venue
7. If you cycled use a treadmill or cross trainer for 20 minutes
If you walk/run use a spinning cycle for 10 minutes Cycle or walk
8. Cycle or walk/run to your home venue , where you finish
9. Swim for 10 minutes / or for non swimmers ( and those using Fitness Habit as their home venue) do 10 minutes on the rowing machine at your home venue
10. Sign off and collect your tee shirt
While the event is intended to be a challenge rather than a race, an element of competition can be included between those cycling, and those running – as the venue elements are fixed time.
Monaghan County Council is pleased to announce that its sister organisation, the Blackwater Regional Partnership, has secured just under £50,000 sterling from the PEACE III Programme/ NI Arts Council to commission a piece of sculpture to be placed along the Greenway.
The sculpture is to serve as a reminder of the role the Ulster Canal once played in facilitating the flow of people and goods through the region which came to be divided by the Border, and also to express the hope that it will once again fulfil that role in its new life as a Greenway in the coming years.
Artists Maree Hensey and Mark Ryan are working with three local community groups to finalise the design of the piece, which it is hoped will be in place before the end of the summer. Thanks to Monaghan Neighbourhood Youth Project, Teach na nDaoine Homework Club and the National Learning Network for participating in this project.
You can follow progress of the community workshops here:
Ooh we are so angry! Found this guy parked on the greenway cycle lane on the mall road for over an hour this eve. So what’s the big deal? It’s a contra flow cycle lane on a one way street. He’s forcing cyclists out into the oncoming traffic – and since it’s a one way street, motorists arent going to be watching out for them. But sure nobody ever uses it: emmmm yes they do – almost 70,000 in its first 12 months, many of whom were children. Maybe he didnt realise: yes he did – we have spoken to the gentleman personally and explained the hazard politely. He knows he could cause someone to be killed. Sure maybe it was just the once: the guy lives on the mall road. We see him parked here regularly. Maybe there was nowhere else to park?: wrong again. The ENTIRE right hand side of the mall road, starting just 10 yards from where he is parked in this photo was EMPTY. this guy just doesnt give a s#!+. People of Monaghan, please share this post to let this guy know that putting our children’s lives at risk merely so he has 10 yards less to walk to his house is NOT OK. thx. Rant over – for now……
The first section of the Ulster Canal Greenway, from the Bypass into Old Cross Square, is now open a year. So we thought we’d mark the occasion with a look at the usage numbers.
49,485 visits were made along the Greenway during 2014
5,666 of these were made by bikes
43,819 were on foot
The second section, from the Glen Road to the Threemilehouse Road, opened in mid May 2014. In its first six months, this section has seen 35,624 visits; 4341 on bikes and 31,283 on foot.
We’d especially like to thank those mad runners who use the Greenway in the dark with headlamps strapped to their foreheads for helping to boost our numbers!
But our favourite user of the year was the young man in the motorised wheelchair who was seen speeding along with his bicycle-mounted friends. They were having a ball!
The Greenway has finally taken delivery of its ‘face’, that is the Signage which marks the route.
There are ‘trail head’ signs on the Armagh Road, Old Cross Square and Threemilehouse Road, complete with a map of the route and QR codes linking you to more information online. Every junction of the greenway is now also marked with smaller ‘mini-monolith’ signs. The logo will shortly be painted onto the footpath to flag up any turns the user has to make. So no excuses now for getting lost!!
Pictured below are the Municipal District Elected Members, along with MD Co-Ordinator Donal McElwain, inspecting the trailhead sign on the Armagh Road.
The Ecocamp in Teach na nDaoine, organised by the Monaghan County Council’s Environmental Awareness Officer, Nial O Connor, visited the Greenway last week and declared it a resounding success. The new Biodiversity information signs, erected by Monaghan Tidy Towns on frames constructed by the Men’s Shed, were also a big hit. Well done to all!
Ulster Canal Greenway 