CLG An Clochan Liath development hoping to now pick up the pace

Dungloe development hoping to now pick up the pace

2023 has been a busy year so far for CLG An Clochan Liath with lots of activity across all grades but it's off the pitch, in terms of development where the club aim to hit even greater heights in the very near future.

Their hurlers competed in the senior championship, the senior Ladies were promoted to Division 1 for the first time and their senior men returning to senior championship action after winning the Intermediate title last year.

Here, the club explains just where all that planning and plotting is at: Tá ár bpáirc an-ghnóthach faoi láthair agus caithfimid smaoineamh ar an obair atá déanta agus an obair atá le déanamh. Táimid ar ais ag imirt i Roinn 1 agus tá súil againn fanacht ann. Mar sin caithfimid ár bpáirc nua a fhorbairt agus an obair ansin a chríochnú.

The new field and training facilities will need to be completed in order to ensure Dungloe stay at the top table of Donegal GAA where they belong and to bring further success.

Over recent months the question has been asked many times: What’s happening with the new pitch?

The simple answer is we’re waiting - waiting for the settlement of the land to complete after loading up the area with stone and soil. When this settlement is complete we will move to the next phase of leveling and re-grading the stone layer to allow the finished pitch to be built.

In 2021 we installed drainage and a stone ‘berm’ and road around the new pitch. This berm ensured that when the pitch was loaded up with thousands of loads of stone that there would be no movement in the existing bog or slippage towards the river bank.

All work was carried out in consultation with Inland Fisheries. Silt traps were installed on drainage routes to help prevent any potential for silting of the river and thereby preventing any potential damage to the local flora and fauna.

This work also involved the planting over 500 native trees which help to provide shelter and will help with insect life and we also registered as part of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan.

Is cuid riachtanach dár straitéis d’fhorbairt chlub é an fócas seo ar chosaint agus ar fheabhsú an chomhshaoil. Is cuid lárnach den phobal muid agus ba mhaith linn gach is féidir linn a dhéanamh chun ár dtimpeallacht áitiúil a fheabhsú.

In 2022 we moved to the next stage of construction by ‘supercharging’ the area where the pitch is to be constructed.

This work involved bringing in almost 2,500 loads of filling in order to ‘load up’ the pitch area to induce settlement of the layer of bog underneath.

It would not have been feasible to remove this bog either from a cost or an environmental point of view. The filling was installed to a level significantly above the final designed pitch level so that the additional weight would ‘squeeze’ the water out of the underlying layer of bog thus causing settlement and consolidation.

The settlement has been monitored and logged on a regular basis over the past 12 months and we are now seeing the settlement amounts starting to become very small. The settlement has seen an average settlement of 410mm (approx.16 inches) over the entire pitch area. When this settlement has reduced to a minimal level we can then confidently move to the next stage of work. We expect the settlement to be completed in the late Autumn. The next stage of work will involve re-grading all of the stone to finished levels and preparing the surface to receive the finished pitch.

For the finished pitch we will reuse a significant amount of soil dug on site rather than importing soil from the East of the county or further afield. This decision was taken in order to minimise the environmental impact of our work and as a result of this decision we have managed to eliminate almost 1000 lorry journeys (through export and import of materials) thus significantly reducing our carbon footprint in the construction of the new pitch.

In 2023 we obtained planning permission for floodlighting to the new pitch. At present we are installing new ducting and lighting infrastructure for the pitch and providing a new electricity supply and we are putting the existing ESB cables to the East of the pitch underground. This is necessary to allow us to install floodlighting to the boundary in the future.

We are now about to go out to tender for the new pitch laying contract and we hope to be in a position to appoint a contractor in the Autumn with a view to having the new pitch laid in Spring 2024.

As a result of our fundraising drive last year (Live Free in 23) we will also be ordering the goalposts, ballcatcher nets and putting in bases for floodlighting as part of this work. So whilst it looks like we are just ‘waiting’ the club are actively working away in the background to make ourselves ready for senior football and hurling and hopefully camogie in years to come and to drive our club forward to become once again one of the powerhouses of Donegal GAA.

The waiting will be worth it! Fan linn!!