Blackrock Tourism and Development Group have launched the first ever “Blackrock Village Tourist Guide and Walking Map”.
The map is available immediately free of charge in Blackrock and in all hotels, museums, tourism venues and tourist offices in Dundalk , Drogheda, Carlingford and throughout Louth and surrounding areas. The map will be published annually and will show a calendar of the upcoming events Blackrock Tourism & Development Group have planned.
This project and group are non profit making and have relied on fundraising events and sponsorship from the 18 businesses who took out advertising space on the map and Louth County Council who part subsidized the production of 10,000 maps. The group employed the services of renowned Artist and Illustrator Davey Cousley to draw and depict Blackrock Village in a style that best captures the essence of the village as well as being user friendly and that stands out in a stand full of tourist leaflets.
It has 12 Points of Interest depicting why you should visit Blackrock on the map with icon images and brief write ups on each of them. The map is a visitor’s guide to the village as well as being a Walking Map, detailing two walking routes visitors can take when they visit the village, a “Round the Rock” walk which is a circular route following the footpaths and so, is friendly to mothers with prams, young children on their bikes, wheelchair users and to anyone who wants to spontaneously avail of a nice walk taking in the sea-air. The other walk depicted is the “The Wellie Walk” and as the name implies you need your wellies, the terrain is rougher involving walking on mudflats, through rock pools, climbing up & over rocks and getting a few splashes on the shores edge, so this route is perfect for the more adventurous walker and as long as the tide is out!
Development needs to be respectful of its past whilst looking to its future and plans include developing a boardwalk extending from the beaches south linking the other coastal villages and to the north linking with the Navy Bank and Dundalk. They are aspiring to have a blue flag beach and to build a pier on the rock covered pipe on the main beach. In addition they plan to open a museum dedicated to the fishing tradition of the rock and to its lifeboat history. These are all progressive and accumulative stages in their development plans with this map being the first stepping stone on this path of development and it’s launched has firmly laid the foundation for what now appears to be a very bright and sunny future thanks to the commitment and relentless work of this group.
The next immediate step is the publishing of the map and its 12 points of interest on the Failte Ireland’s DiscoverIreland website and an interactive version of the map with hotspots and audio clips on the groups own website http://www.visitblackrock.ie. Next, the group will focus on building Blackrock’s maritime story themes for Ireland’s Ancient East Governments National tourism programme.
The group are extremely grateful and appreciative of the continuous support and backing received from Dundalk Chamber of Commerce , LCC and the enterprise & Development Department , the local Blackrock businesses, Blackrock Tidy Towns and Blackrock park committee and they look forward to continuing support.
