Visitors to Wicklow Town can now get a personal guided tour of the town’s history any time of day or night thanks to a new audio tour which has just been launched.

Footsteps through Wicklow’s past came about when Alan O’Flaherty, who runs the Wicklow.com website, approached local historian John Finlay about the idea back in March.

“John was incredibly helpful and encouraging and this audio tour could not have happened without his knowledge. He told me that he had been approached several times in the past about putting an audio tour together and that it was definitely an idea whose time had come. ”

All of the research and writing of the script for the tour was undertaken by John during March and early April, and once this was completed, the tour was then recorded by Alan.

The result of this collaboration is an audio tour of the town which starts and ends at St. Patrick’s church. In between, the listener is taken right back through the history of Wicklow. The route of the tour is approximately 3.5km and has 17 stops along the way.

“I often see visitors to the town wandering around looking lost and wondering what to do. This audio tour is a great way to encourage the visitor to spend more time and go away with a real knowledge and appreciation for the wonderful history of the town. There was lots in this tour I didn’t even know myself and I found it fascinating, so it’s not just the visitor who will learn about the town’s history!”, said Alan.

The tour and map/guidebook is available completely free of charge and can be downloaded directly from www.wicklow.com/walk. Once the tour has been downloaded from the website it can then be played on an iPod or any other MP3 player. There are also copies of the tour on CD in the library. Alan hopes to make it available in the tourist office also for a nominal fee and future plans include foreign language versions of the tour as well as tours of Bray, Arklow and Glendalough.

Any local shops and businesses who would like to be included in the guidebook and can offer coupons or vouchers to visitors and encourage local shopping are welcome to be included in the guide. They should contact Alan on (086) 8132389 or email webmaster@wicklow.com

“I would like to thank Michael Brady of East Coast and Midlands Tourism who provided assistance and advice and also to Condor Publishing in Monaghan who gave permission for the Wicklow Town map to be modified and used for this project”