St Brigid camino route in Kildare to be explored
St. Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare Town
KILDARE County Council has secured €50,000 for a feasibility study ahead of a possible 'St Brigid camino' being established in the county, as part of the expansion of the Brigid-Spirit of Kildare Festival.
The funding comes from the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme.
This news emerged after cllrs Brian O’Loughlin and Veralouise Behan brought forward a motion on the agenda for the latest meeting of Kildare County Council, in which they sought an update from the council “on the progress of the proposed pathway/camino connecting the St Brigid sites around County Kildare”.
The St Brigid camino walk in Monasterevin has been a success in recent years but this project is set to be larger in scale.
The report issued by director of services for climate, community and environment and water at KCC Marian Higgins in response to the two councillors provided an update with the aforementioned figure and further detailed that “the community department (of the council) has allocated the required match funding of €5,000 and accordingly the funding agreement with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht was signed in Q4 2025.”
Mr Higgins’s report set out the next step of the project, which is “to initiate a procurement process for a consultancy to carry out a feasibility study to explore the routing options and all related factors, including but not limited to environmental, access, capital, maintenance and management.”
It was noted in the report that the funding agreement’s conditions require the completion of this study and the submission of all costs by February next year.
Cllr Behan thanked the council executive for the response. She said that the camino was an opportunity for Kildare tourism to “bring Brigid into the consciousness all year round.” Cllr O’Loughlin said that he was looking forward to the project moving on.
