CV NEWS FEED// A “Pilgrim’s Path” ascending Croagh Patrick in Ireland has opened in time for the national pilgrimage honoring St. Patrick, after a group spent three years building a safer path.
Each year on “Reek Sunday,” the last Sunday of July, thousands of pilgrims scale the rocky slopes of Croagh Patrick. As Ireland’s national media website explains, the previous path had eroded, so a group formed in 2015 to address the problem.
The Croagh Patrick’s Stakeholders Group commissioned a path leading up to the mountain, “in the interest of the safety of climbers themselves, to preserve the mountain’s habitat, and to sustain this special pilgrimage for future generations,” CatholicNews.ie reports.
A group of five local Irishmen, Frank McMahon, Tulio d’Jesus, Bernard Burke and David Doyle, and Matt McConway, built the path entirely by hand, only using stones from the Croagh Patrick. The path is 6.5 feet wide and 2.4 miles long.
The men also created a YouTube channel recording their progress over the years. Their work culminated with this video:
Father John Kenny of the nearby Westport Parish encouraged climbers to stay on the Pilgrim’s Path during the pilgrimage to preserve the path, emphasizing that, “we all have a responsibility to share in the protection of the mountain’s fragile ecosystem.”
