Walking tours of Macroom’s colourful murals in pipeline

PLANS are already in place for a self-guided walking tour of the various colourful murals dotted around Macroom which could be a game-changer for tourists visiting the town.

Cllr Gobnait Moynihan (FF) has welcomed this Council-backed initiative after she had previously asked that they put scan codes under all the murals commissioned by them in Macroom and turn it into a self-guided walking tour.

‘This is a great idea and it will work well for example when a busload of tourists stop in the square and they will be able to do a 10-15 minute self-guided tour of the town,’ said Cllr Moynihan.

‘They will get to learn about the town through each different mural and find out things about the burning of Macroom Castle and other things like the relevance of the Hooded Cloak,’ she added.

At a recent meeting of the Macroom Municipal District, district officer Marie O’Leary said they have been progressing the proposal and hope to have issues resolved and have it up and running, hopefully for St Patrick’s Day.

Artists Cormac Shiel and Denis O’Reardon are synonymous with the murals across Macroom town.

Their most recent work of art – their sixth to date – remembers the town’s revered Mountain Dew Festival and Cork’s favourite guitarist, Rory Gallagher. It was unveiled last year on the gable wall of Ray Cronin’s house, to wide acclaim.

Their other completed works include one of the last goods train to leave Macroom station in 1953 which adorns the gable end of a house on the corner of Cork St and St Colman’s Park.

They also completed the famous ‘Macroom Hooded Cloak’ as well as a colourful mural within the grounds of Macroom Castle. 

There is also a mural of Macroom Castle painted onto a wall in New Street, showing it in all its glory in the late nineteenth century.

And with a new bypass in place, tourists will be able to walk about the town more freely, as a lot of the heavy traffic has been finally removed.