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A WILDLIFE PARK in North Cork is one of Ireland’s best-performing tourist attractions.
And while the natural beauty of the park may be the main attraction for visitors – many more people are hearing about it now, thanks to a decision made a few years ago to simply count the number of people entering the grounds.
The large entrance gates under the Triumphal Arch mark the formal entrance to the landscaped estate of Doneraile Wildlife Park. The park’s 166 hectares of land are full of mature groves of deciduous trees – and deer can be viewed from along the many pathways within the estate.
Doneraile Wildlife Park was named this week as Ireland’s fourth-most-popular ‘free to enter’ attraction of 2016 by Fáilte Ireland, attracting over 480,000 visitors last year. This was an 11% rise on the visitor numbers of 2015.
The annual Fáilte Ireland list of top attractions is eagerly anticipated within the tourist sector each year – and receives widespread attention from the national media.
Alongside Doneraile in the top five for 2016 are much better-known locations like the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin city centre and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham.
And though it’s regarded as a local treasure in Cork, Doneraile may not be a household name elsewhere in Ireland. The park made it into the top five ‘free to enter’ attractions in 2014, but fell out of the list in 2015.
Interestingly, it wasn’t actually eligible for inclusion in the Fáilte list before 2014 – because no-one could be sure how many people were using the park.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie Myra Ryall of the Doneraile Development Association explained that her group, working alongside Cork County Council, decided to install counters so they would have a tally of visitors.
“That’s how we have the official data of the figures,” she said.
It wasn’t being promoted before 2014. There was no counters, there was just a couple of locals saying we needed to gather together and get the counters.
The majority of the garden design and architecture of the park was completed in the early 18th Century, when it was home to the St Leger family.
The estate is regarded as a perfect example of an 18th Century landscaped park in the ‘Capability Brown’ style. Brown was known as one of England’s greatest gardeners.
“It’s a beautiful sight and speaks for itself. It draws in the crowds,” Doneraile Park superintendent Hugh Corrigan said.
The landscape draws people into the park, the fact that you’re away from the traffic. For families, the playground is a star attraction, the tea rooms as well.
“There’s something in Doneraile for everybody; if you’re a walker, if you’re a landscape enthusiast, or maybe you have an interest in garden history. The Georgian style landscape is very prevalent there, that is a major attraction in itself,” Corrigan said.
The culture and the heritage that’s there is fantastic and probably unparalleled in terms of the history of the site.
A lot of work and investment has gone into keeping up the historical beauty of Doneraile over the past few years and this has helped boost tourist numbers.
2013 saw the completion of conservation works to the Triumphal Arch in Doneraile Park. The Arch was conserved following a survey that found the structure was in a failing condition.
“We’re trying to grow tourism in the North Cork area. We have made significant investment in Doneraile, with playgrounds, walking routes and tea rooms in recent years,” Corrigan said.
Going forward, we are hoping to invest further into it to keep the growth going.
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Oh help us, does this man not have a feedback loop where he can hear what he says ?
Everybody cheats and an economic genius is someone who pays no tax by first losing $916 billion dollars. Welcome to the Republican Party, 2016.
The Republicans are just less discrete and polished presently than the Democrats in concealing the ruthless exploitation of the system that they both espouse and enforce.
Look whose talking, the people who exploit the exploited.
I had a good feeling about Rudy after 9/11 but that’s gone now
@Emer Caffrey: Yeah I did too, but this whole election has changed my opinion of him.
@Emer me too. I actually held him in high regard. He had slowly eroded that away.
That’s because you’re all obviously bleeding heart lefties and he is a right wing Republican.
Come on James and explain why Rudyard can cheat on his wife and it doesn’t matter, but Hillary is at fault for not cheating on her husband and why all of that makes it OK for Donald to pay no taxes AND claim he’s a genius for losing nearly $1billion while criticising those who don’t pay tax. Try to do this without lazily flinging around insults and in a manner that might convince some women to vote for Trump…Go on….we need some entertainment.
@Deborah Behan: I wouldn’t hold him in too high a regard for 9/11 either… Rudy opposed replacement radios for the NYFD as the ones in use couldn’t work in sky scrapers. The end result was an unknown number of firefighters dying that way when they didn’t hear the calls to fall back before the collapse.
His silly statements about people’s private lives don’t change any good (or bad) he may have done.
Let’s not forget putting the cities main command post in a building that had previously been a target of terrorism against the advice of many
Giuliani has been making a (very good) living off the back of 9/11 since it happened.
His polices towards the homeless in NY were immoral.
His idiotic decision to put the command post in the WTC instead of in Brooklyn was disastrous.
Basically, 9/11 made him look good when in reality he was always an extreme right wing politician.
Sorry but saying someone is “extreme right wing”, which he wasn’t, he was right wing or far right at most, doesn’t make them a terrible politician. Were some of his policies counter productive? Absolutely. Were some of his policies (such as those related to crime) useful in lowering crime in the city? Yes, definitely. A great many these days could likely be described as “extreme left” which is also pejorative. Far left policies are outside the norm and not backed by the majority. Same goes for far right. The difference is that far left will attempt to shame those who don’t agree with them into submission. There is nothing inherently wrong with being either right wing or left wing. Roughly half of society is one and half the other. Or a mix that leans either way depending. Being the extreme of either can be troublesome as extremists will rarely work with others to compromise and bring positive change. I find that people bandying about terms like “extreme right wing politician” are rarely able to be objective and compromise.
When a woman gets a vibrator, it’s seen as a bit of naughty fun. BUT when a guy orders a 240 volt Fcukmaster Pro 5000 blowup latex doll with 6 speed pulsating p*ssy, elasticized anus with non-drip semen collection tray, together with optional built-in realistic orgasm scream 7.1 surround system, he’s called a pervert.
The Pro 5000 is for amateurs!
@I Am A Horse: Comment of the century,
Brilliant!!
Excellent and fair comment you’ve made there !!
I am a horse you have one too! The damn thing eat batteries.
@I Am A Horse: It wouldn’t hurt to post a link goddamit!
@Virtual Architect: ; D
I’m curupus as to how the purchaser of such a dwvice would have any idea what a realistic orgasm is supposed to sound like.
This election has caused people to defend le gobsh!t and la gobsh!t. Both in my opinion should not even be running because they both inept and unqualified but because of money and influence they are all we have. America needs to do better.
Agreed. They are both horrendous. The US is in some deep sh!t
I’m going to miss the daily lol of the campaign though
Trump and his campaign entourage are such wonderful people.
“Kathleen Willey — a former volunteer White House aide who accused Bill Clinton of making aggressive, unwanted advances during a private meeting in 1993 — said she holds Hillary Clinton responsible for smearing her and the many other women who have come forward with stories about their treatment at the hands of her husband. “This no longer about Bill Clinton’s transgressions or his infidelities or girlfriends or sex … it’s not about that anymore,” Willey told the Washington Examiner. “What it’s about is the actions that his wife has taken against the women that he has raped and assaulted.”"…http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/willey-hillary-clinton-complicit-in-husbands-sexual-misconduct/article/2603352?custom_click=rss
Lol Chuck Todd couldn’t cut away quick enough when Gulliani broached the subject of Bill Clinton’s rapes and sexual assaults against women and Hillary’s treatment of those victims, interesting that part of his response was left out of the article altogether.
You mean it’s interesting that they weren’t allowed to make unfounded rumours sound like facts live and for free on tv? Yes,very.
James, using quotation marks for something a person didn’t actually say is slander.
It’s been removed, waiting for James to cry censorship
“Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported” HRC 23 November 2015… https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/668597149291184128. Just don’t believe anyone who accuses her husband.
Glad to see you’ve edited your previous slander. Now that you’ve lied here and actually committed an offense why should anybody believe a word you say?
Dave you’ve also had comments deleted this morning, you are no different. Putting inverted commas around a sentence for effect is not a lie, it is a literary technique.
Another flat out lie from James
In a recent German survey, 18% of married women admitted to having had an affair with another man. The survey however didn’t reveal the man’s identity
I used to like Rudy. Now I just think he’s lost the plot
“In 1999, she said Clinton kissed her and began biting her lip as she tried to pull away. Then, she claims, Clinton pushed her down onto the bed. She told NBC’s “Dateline”: “I just was very frightened, and I tried to get away from him and I told him ‘No,’ that I didn’t want this to happen but he wouldn’t listen to me. … It was a real panicky, panicky situation. I was even to the point where I was getting very noisy, you know, yelling to ‘Please stop.’” At that point, she says, Clinton held her right shoulder down and continued biting her lip. After the assault, she told “Dateline,” “[Clinton] got up and straightened himself, and I was crying at the moment and he walks to the door, and calmly puts on his sunglasses. And before he goes out the door he says ‘You better get some ice on that.’ And he turned and went out the door.” Read more at http://mobile.wnd.com/2016/09/clinton-rape-accuser-drops-twitter-bomb-on-chelsea/#uDqh4aa1vp6gEIe4.99
And that is horrendous but I fail to see what it has to do with Donald’s taxes.
Red thumbs support rape.
A new low for James
@James Odin: Freddie Starr ate my Hamster
He has the morals of an ALLY CAT.
“I think my personal life is irrelevant to what Hillary Clinton did.”
The only relevant part of this whole propaganda piece.
Good man Rudy.
The priest needs to sell his story to The Sun
Dear god,what a sad twerp.
He’s been on a downward spiral since 9/11. Maybe that was his level as his subsequent forays into national politics have been inept and as for backing trump , well that’s just sad and embarrassing.
Dope
Hillary and Palin I think are war mongerers that is what I fear…
Why is a man’s character defined by his job and his penis location?
Morals of an ALLY CAT.
Is this why there’s that song “everybody hurts”
Eh no you don’t
have your say