Access to Croagh Patrick from the west

Communities Ireland
1

Hello,
Andy from the DWG here.
We’ve recently heard from a someone who says that there are some problems with OSM data in the area of Croagh Patrick. There are a couple of issues, which can be seen by the OSM notes here.

One issue is that the path that OSM has here (added 12 years ago) apparently crosses a private fence at the western end, and at least that part of it is not public. That path goes via Ben Goram to Croagh Patrick; it is unclear what other access to Ben Goram if any there is. The start point of that path broadly matches this boards.ie post (which might of course have been influence by the alleged path in OSM).

There’s apparently a fence to the north of the unclassified road here between the main road in the west and approximately here put in place by the landowners to prevent access.

Another issue is that the road between here and here is apparently private. OSM has it as part of one long unclassified road.

Is anyone here vaguely familiar with the area west of Croagh Patrick? I’ve only ever climbed the “tourist motorway” from the east, so don’t have any knowledge of it.

Best Regards,

Andy

2

I’ve taken a look at this, though I don’t know the area. At first, the suggestion that the road loop had a private section seemed odd, but I had chosen to knock some of the wonkiness out of the road geometry and I found 3 locations along the road that look from Bing to be possible gates. Those correspond imperfectly to the notes provided, but if we take them at face value, then the upper reaches of the roadway as enclosed by the 2 outer gates lead only to what seems to be a single farm, so it’s quite plausible. Look for the FIXME locations in my changeset to see for yourself:

As to the path itself - per the tagging and per Bing, the path isn’t super-visible on the ground, which can be a euphemism for an open hillside where you make your own way. Landowners are not always in the right when they fence off land, but they can be.

Dermot

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