Dublin Mountains. Photograph by Action Photography. Slide 1 Dublin Mountains. Photograph by Action Photography. Slide 2 Dublin Mountains. Photograph by Action Photography. Slide 3 Dublin Mountains. Photograph by Action Photography. Slide 4

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Website of the Dublin Mountains Initiative (DMI).  The DMI is a voluntary body established in July 2006 with the aim of starting a process that would lead to the development of an outdoor recreational area in the Dublin Mountains.  At its inception the DMI saw the Dublin Mountains as being a largely undervalued resource and believed that the area should be developed and managed in a sustainable manner with particular attention being paid to maintaining and improving the integrity and aesthetic value of the mountain environment.

Dublin Mountains. Photograph by Action Photography Photograph by Action Photography

Progress to Date

Our vision at the time was that the Dublin Mountain area be recognised as an area of outstanding recreational amenity and developed as such for the benefit of all.  We believed that this process should be done in consultation with all interested parties and with the consent of all landowners involved. We believed that, for this to succeed, there needed to be a unified development and management policy for the whole of the Dublin Mountains. 

Shortly after it was set up, the DMI was invited to participate in steering group discussions between Coillte, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and South County Dublin County Council – these bodies are the major owners of public access land in the mountains. A memorandum of understanding was drawn up between all the steering group members including the DMI and the Dublin Mountains Partnership was created in 2007. (Dublin City Council subsequently signed the MOU and has also become a member of the DMP.) The DMP then engaged consultants with a brief to come up with a ten year recreational strategy for the Dublin Mountains following consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.

 Since then the DMP has been working to realise that strategy and to date has put the following in place:-

  1. Sustainable way-marked trails. These include regular walking trails and a dedicated mountain biking trail and educational trails.
  2. The Dublin Mountains Way – a national way-marked way linking to the Wicklow Way and to the coast.
  3. Other facilities such as permanent orienteering courses and a forest high wire experience.
  4. An orienteering course with disabled access (currently in construction).
  5. A Volunteer Ranger Programme.
  6. A Consultative Forum to enable input from local landowners, residents and stakeholders.
  7. A designated website (www.dublinmountains.ie) and information programme.
  8. New barriers and procedures that have enabled the opening up of previously closed car parks.
  9. Employment of a full-time manager to co-ordinate the work of the DMP.

The DMI has played a very active role within the DMP, representing the interests of recreational users and will continue to do so. A lot of good work has been done but we believe that there is a lot more that can still be done. There are few capital cities in the world with such ready access to the outdoor environment.  With continued imagination and hard work and the provision of further resources the Dublin Mountains can become a major attraction that will benefit both the people who live here and those who visit the city.

Dublin Mountains. Photograph by Action Photography Photograph by Action Photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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