Gorey Town Park by Michael O’Callaghan

A Visit to Gorey Town Park by Michael O’Callaghan

There are many lovely walks around Gorey and Courtown and I think I have traversed and written
about every square meter of them over the years.
In this article I come back into Gorey where I have discovered the magnificent Town Park. This is an
absolutely gem of a place for healthy safe walking day or night.
I just love the choices of walks contained therein with availability of fitness gadgets on site. It is easily accessible with car park entrance to ample free parking on the Fort Road while there is pedestrian access on the Hollyfort Road.
I usually walk up by the fire station, through the Community Heritage Orchard, past the Sean Lios housing estate and then I cross the Hollyfort Road into the park. I start walking around the outer circuit on a lovely level path. Each lap of the park is 1428 metres for those of us who are counting steps.
On my left is a beautifully laid out children’s playground which is usually a hive of activity. It is clean, safe, well designed and maintained.
A I walk along the path I note the grass edges are well maintained areas by our excellent town gardening crew. They are assisted by volunteers and the tidy towns committee in planting and maintaining a wide variety of flower beds and shrubbery. Now I come to the Sensory Garden which is a lovely place to sit, relax, unwind, and link up with plants and nature and be free from the cares and worries of everyday life for a while. You can go in, take a seat, and enjoy the peace of the place. I just love the colour and formation of this area and the significance of each constituent part as they are designed to appeal to all our senses.  It appeals to our sight in the red beds, hearing in the water dripping down the central standing stone,  smell in the cerise beds, taste in the blue beds, and touch in the orange beds. The pupils of Gorey Central school have lots of colourful art around the perimeter adding a further artistic dimension to
this oasis of calm and wellness.

I continue my lap walking past the carpark and the well-maintained council stores with its nice emerging beech hedge around its periphery. I notice some very nice copses of trees and shrubs with lots of bulbs planted for an annual spring colour extravaganza.
Walking around the outer path there is a great variety of trees planted to keep this area as a healthy carbon free walking territory for the present and future generations. The park is linked in with the I million tree planting plan and they have planted 1000 trees in a micro forest in the park as part of this worthwhile commendable project.
As I look ahead over the wall the Gorey Educate together second level school comes into view in addition to the new Deerpark houses. Ahead in the distance below Creagh Lane are four lovely green fields which are a joy to behold. The central green area of Gorey Town Park is home to a well-used and excellently maintained sports ground.  At the top end there is a strategically placed relaxing area, recessed back from the perimeter path with seating provided.
There are several seats where you can sit down and take a breather placed around the park.
For people at the slightly fitter end of the scale there are exercise gadgets placed along the perimeter of the path where you can pedal, twist, and turn, do press ups, and pull ups or whatever you fancy on the day. This is all available on the doorstep of people living in the greater Gorey area and it is all free gratis and for nothing in glorious pollution free fresh air.

As I walk around the perimeter tarmacadamed pathway I share it with quite a few runners who are puffing and panting their way through three and a half laps of the park to get in their five Kms run. They appear to be a school group getting exercise in good clean decarbonated air.  We have walked three laps at a lively pace. We cross over the bridge past the wildflower and biodiversity garden and go over by the skateboard park which like all areas of this park is excellently
designed and maintained.

Now after all this leg stretching it is time for some sustenance and who better to serve it up than Eoin and Sinead Cullen and staff in their centrally located new modern coffee pod. It has a great range of indoor and outdoor seating areas and is open seven days a week. It is a nice friendly place for a lovely rendezvous with friends or to grab a coffee for a sip and stroll. I have met people from outside Gorey who came to the pod and were delighted to have discovered this destination venue. The café has lots of natural light and easy visibility of adjacent play areas on both sides which is a great facility for parents keeping a watchful eye on their children as they play.

You also just must love the open amphitheatre area, beside the café which is a lovely relaxing area to lol around on a sunny day and it is easy to visualise it being used for shows or an open market area in the future.  Anyway, I had my usual cappuccino with a very tasty chocolate cookie while my wife had an
Americano which we both enjoyed in the outdoor covered seating area.

Gorey Town Park is a safe and friendly exercise and socialising venue suited to all ages and is very family friendly.
It is a new ultra-modern thirteen-acre public urban facility only opened in 2023 which is developing nicely with all the carbon reducing trees growing so well. Gorey Town Park is pristine clean. I have yet to see any litter in any part of it. Dog owners too are more poo aware and now most people bring doggy poo bags and clean up after their pets which is a very welcome development.

Finally ,it is worth mentioning that a facility for campervans to fill up with water, empty their cassette toilets and discharge their grey water is located in Gorey town Park. The toilet area in the coffee dock is regularly checked and immaculately clean. It is a standard model for what public toilet facilities should be.
We are blessed and so lucky to have this super well equipped town park on our doorsteps.

Michael O’Callaghan

November 2023

With thanks to Gorey Park Run, The Coffee Pod, Gorey Tidy Towns & Brian Kinsella for images