Ireland’s largest skate park to open in Greystones
County Wicklow’s first skate park, and the larget in Ireland, is due to open on Saturday 21st April. The park will cater for both skaters and BMXers and will comprise of three separate areas: A high performance bowl, A nouveau street style plaza/beginner area and A traditional street course
The skate park is the result of years of lobbying by skaters and BMX riders. The SPC (Strategic Policy Committee) for Community, Cultural and Social Development, chaired by Cllr. George Jones, has supported the development of skate parks for some time through the County Wicklow Play Policy. When the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced funding for skate parks, Wicklow County Council were ready to avail of this opportunity.
Performing the joint opening ceremony will be the Cathaoirleach of Wicklow Co Co, Cllr. Joe Behan and Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government Mr. Dick Roche T.D.. Wicklow County Council manager, Mr. Edward Sheehy, will also be in attendance.. There will be plenty music, with four live bands playing. And of course lots of skating, including demonstrations by local and international skaters/BMX riders. There will also be an exhibition of art and photography related to the culture of skating.
The official opening ceremony will being at 12.30pm, preceded by Skateboarding and BMX demonstrations and 12.00pm. From 1.00pm to 5.00pm there will be live music, demonstrations and the skate park is open to all.
April 10th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Its about bloody time, well done Dick Roche and Wicklow County Council. I havent skated for many years purely because there has been no facilites available. I used to spend everyday as a kid skating the streets but gave it up because of constant harassment from Garda and angry passers bye. I can honestly say now as a 24 year old that if me and my friends had a skatepark when we were 15-16 we would probably now be professionals representing Ireland and would most defiently have not have experimented with drugs and alcohol because of a serious constant case of bordom.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Definitely long overdue alright and it’s great to see a facility like this in the county and hopefully more will be built.
April 24th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
There are some photos of the opening day on my blog, and on flickr
April 26th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Great action shots there, I missed out on going down to the opening myself but good to see the facility open now.
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:09 am
Can ANYONE out there help??? My son (age 13) & I are visiting Ireland (from US) about July 23 or so until 12 August. [Dublin horseshow Aug 8-12]. He is not into horses, but is heavily into BMX & wants to ride in Ireland. Can you tell me what the hours are, excatly where it is, etc. Would he have to bring his own bike? That would be very difficult & costly to transport. Can he borrow? rent? How much would that be?
THANKS! HunsakerC@hotmail.com (US, in Arizona)
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hello Colleen, the centre is open 10am to 10pm weekdays, and 10 to 6 on Saturday and Sunday. There is no bike hire facility and nothing locally either as I rang the centre to find out.. The closest place to hire a bike i believe would be Dublin City Centre. The centre is located on the outskirts of Greystones village which is served by the DART service (communter rail - http://www.dart.ie for more information)
The telephone number of the centre is +353-1-2016144.
That’s all the information I can get for you. Hope it helps
Alan
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:24 am
Alan—-THANKS so much!!!!!
May I impose 1 more question please? Where in Ireland are the the other BMX parks? We don’t have any particular itinerary, but will go around at least the southern part of Ireland.
I don’t know why I can’t search & get connected to sites from the US—have tried with Google & yahoo, but when I find a site, I get ‘cannot connect to this site. Any ideas?
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Hi Colleen, no problem. I’m really unfamiliar with the world of BMXers and Skaters but there is a widely used discussion forum called boards.ie which has a section dedicated to these activities. Always helpful people in there that know all about the goings on all over the country. Here’s a direct link to the forum
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=168
You’ll probably have to sign up for an account to post a question but it only takes a couple of minutes
Alan