Community groups in the Burren are weary of the nine-year planning war over Mullaghmore. They are looking forward to developing an integrated plan to allow at last the sustainable development of the region.
But despite An Bord Plean ala's decision to refuse planning permission for the Burren visitor centre, the last battle will be fought over the building works carried out at the controversial site eight years ago by the Office of Public works before a High Court injunction stopped it.
The first salvos following Monday's decision were fired by the Clare Fianna Fail TDs, Tony Killeen and Brendan Daly, who called for the car-park and foundation works to be retained.
The issue is before the High Court since the Burren Action Group, which fought the Mullaghmore proposal, sought an order in June, 1996, requiring the OPW to restore the site to its original condition.
The group states that Mr Justice Flood, who heard the application and deferred it, "appears to take the view that the considerable State and EU funds expended to date should not be wasted" and that a resolution should be agreed. Or, as Mr Daly said this week, it would be "madness" to spend up to £1 million dismantling the works.
Mr Tom O'Connor, the planning inspector who compiled the report on the Mullaghmore appeal, says that aside from the appeal case, the area needed roadside parking, giving weight to the argument that the car-parking facilities should be retained. He says parking arrangements at Mullaghmore should arise "in the context of alternative access arrangements for the national park".
The Heritage Council chief executive, Mr Michael Starrett, says there is now an opportunity "to get it right for the Burren". He believes that, in accordance with international practice, an overall sustainable management plan for the Burren should be implemented. Although attention has been focused on the park, it is a mere 1,300 hectares out of the total Burren area of 750 kms.
"The council has been working with local communities in the Burren in the development of landscape policy," he says.
Although an outside observer could easily assume that the Burren is bereft of "interpretation", community-based and private initiatives are in place at all the major villages, including Corofin which has been promised £500,000 in funding from the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera.
Ms Myra English, chairwoman of the Corofin community development group, who supported the latter scaled-down Mullaghmore proposal, says the State visitor facilities must be built in the village areas, to serve as gathering points for visitors. The centres "would be complementary to each other".
Ms Finola Macnamara, a Burren Action Group member from nearby Killinaboy, says they "want to move on from here in a spirit of true co-operation and trust so that we can sensitively manage the Burren in order to give, in a dispersed manner, access to all".
Ten miles east is Kilfenora, which has also been promised £500,000 in funding. Like Corofin, it is off the main tourist route which encompasses the major fee-paying attractions at the Cliffs of Moher and the Ailwee Caves.
Ms Kay Vaughan, a pub owner, says the 25-year-old community-owned interpretative centre there was the first of its kind in Europe but it now needs upgrading. She says there should be no building on the Burren, away from the villages. "The people who really, really want to see the Burren will go somewhere to learn about it and then they will go and find it themselves."
The person who introduced many people to the region through his camera lens is Eamon de Buitleir, who admits to never filming the Mullaghmore region because he "did not want to attract people into it".
Citing Skellig Mor off Co Kerry, which had to be closed due to the damage being caused by visitor numbers, he says the bulk of tourists need to be diverted from sensitive areas. Dr David Drew, the geographer, argues in The Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape that "a new harmony" needs to be reached between farming, tourism and the landscape, "involving the collaboration of a wide range of public and private interests". "Above all, local communities need to become actively involved in sustaining their magnificent landscape," he says.
For the moment, the uncompleted building works at Mullaghmore are a monument to how it should not be done.