Madam, - At the head of Glenmalure Valley in Co Wicklow there is an old unpaved road linking Glenmalure with the Glen of Imaal. It is known as Table Track because of the easy access to Table Mountain. Back in the 1940s and 1950s the founder of the Wicklow Way, J.B. Malone, in his writings called it the Stony Road to Imaal.
In the accounts of the 1798 insurrection it was known as the Blackbanks Road, when in July and August of that year the remnants of the Wexford United Irishmen, after retreating from their defeat at Vinegar Hill to find safe haven in Glenmalure, used this old road to escape invading English and Scottish armies. An old Wicklow man in conversation some 25 years ago referred to this road as the Huguenot Trail, which if true would give it a much earlier ancestry.
In short, this ancient road is part of the history of Wicklow and Ireland. Yet it is now being torn asunder by heavy machinery and trucks laden with timber as our forestry authorities are using it as an easy access route to fell and remove trees, as they clear-fell forestry in the vicinity.
Do the forest authorities have the requisite permission and permits to destroy this old road, which once demolished will never be replaced?
The Wicklow Mountains National Park initially (The Irish Times, June 12th) refused permission to the Irish Ramblers Club to hold the Lug Challenge long-distance walk because of "growing concerns about the effect of recreational use by walkers on the fragile mountain environment".
The Department of the Environment overruled this refusal.
It would appear to be pointless for the park manager to refuse permission for this walk on the grounds of "unprecedented pressure" from walkers, as damage by walkers would be negligible compared with that caused by forestry.
Come back Dúchas, all is forgiven!
Or perhaps vested interests within the Government would prefer our Heritage Service to be non-existent, just as this ancient road wil soon be. - Yours, etc.,
DENIS GILL, Beaufield Park, Stillorgan Co Dublin.