‘Potential’ to develop dark sky places in Donegal could be ‘great tourism’

There is potential to develop Donegal's dark skies in rural areas into a “great tourism project”.

The topic arose at the January plenary meeting of Donegal County Council during a discussion about the council’s proposed public lighting policy.

The policy was voted down by councillors, mainly due to concerns that rural areas would be excluded from public lighting provision. However, part of the policy referred to supporting dark skies communities and dark skies places where appropriate. These are places that are recognised for having exceptional quality of starry nights and where the natural environment is protected from light pollution.

During the discussion, Sinn Féin Cllr Gary Doherty suggested that Donegal’s Derryveagh and Bluestacks mountains hold “potential” for developing dark skies places.

“If you look at the research done on the benefits of having a dark skies location, it’s huge and it’s something we could be marketing,” he said. “There’s no population centres in some of these, they’re in the middle of the mountains and the line in the policy is to support where appropriate.”

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His party colleague, Cllr Gerry McMonagle, also supported the suggestion.

“The dark sky is important to this county and it could be a great tourism project,” he said.

“The dark sky idea is important in a county like Donegal that we have the ability in places to really promote that,” said Fine Gael Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh. “We should be doing that wherever suitable.”