Fairy houses, a gym and loop walk at Kealkil's Carriganass Castle park

THE hard work has finally paid off for the team behind Kealkil Parkland at Carriganass Castle. From a 1.1km loop walk to an outdoor gym, the people of Kealkil have already been embracing the facility and it’s proving to be very popular with both young and old.

A lovely extra touch that gives it a unique edge on many other parks is the 12 fairy houses dotted along the route, which were made by the students of both Cappabue and Kealkil National Schools. Despite one being recently stolen, Steve Roff, who does a lot of work with Kealkil Parkland, stepped in and is in the process of making a new one to replace the stolen one.

‘This area, which is about 4.5 acres, was totally overgrown before we started to develop it to put in the loop walk. To fund the parkland we received €22,500 from Cork County Council as well as €15,000 from the Gwendoline Harold-Barry Trust and the remainder was raised through our tree selling initiative as well as other events like outdoor theatre and a road race,’ Tara O’Neill told The Southern Star.

‘We were delighted to have won the  ‘Best Healthy Village’ award at last year’s Muintir na Tire Pride in our Community awards which was amazing as we had only been open just two months.’