BISHOPS MEADOWS RIVER WALK – RIVER NORE LINEAR PARK
This visit I was better prepared for the canal and river walks in Kilkenny. I also brought proper rain gear but it did not rain except for a twenty minute thunder storm.
I wakened up early on the first morning and as the weather was beautiful and because rain had been forecasted for the rest of week I decided that I should immediately visit Bishops Meadows Walk but this timed I returned to the city centre via Freshford Road.
On day two of my visit to Kilkenny in 2018 [my last visit to the city] I walked more than twenty miles over three sessions and I was exhausted because the weather was very hot even though the sky was overcast. At the end of the day my feet were in a very poor condition. I asked a local farmer how long Bishopsmeadows walk was and he responded by saying six fields. Having seen some really large fields on my way to Kilkenny by train I was afraid that this could be six miles but I assumed that it would be no more than two miles assuming about four fields per mile. I later discovered that it is 2.6km but of course the return journey was also the same distance [I often forget about the return journey].
Today [29 May 2021]I decided to leave the city centre as quickly as possible because it was packed with people so I decided that it might be a good idea to visit St. Anne’s Park but getting there was not as easy as I expected because the bus was delayed by traffic. Eventually the bus had to divert, via East Seafield Road, as buses could not pass along Mount Prospect Avenue because many cars were parked on both sides of the road.
The park has a number of features. It is crossed by the small Naniken River, and this, in turn, feeds the artificial Duck Pond. The Guinness family added a number of follies, a walled garden, and the grand avenue. Over the last fifty years, extensive walks, a famous Rose Garden and newer miniature rose garden, and Dublin’s city arboretum, the Millennium Arboretum, with 1,000 varied trees, have been added.
Within the last decade, Dublin City Council has been restoring parts of the Naniken River to its natural state, creating wildlife habitats and wildflower meadows, and improving the path system. They removed some 1970s interventions, including a secondary pond and some rockery walks, partly due to problems with maintenance and partly to open up a vista from the James Larkin Road. The park management also increased car parking to alleviate traffic congestion in the surrounding neighbourhoods of the popular park.
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