Activities in Portarlington

Silent Rain

Hey
I have a couple of mates coming down for the weekend and was wondering about how I could distract them from the pub until a reasonable hour, maybe organise a game of Pitch & Putt or something. Does anybody have any details on P&P courses around Port, or any other ideas ? Obviously I konw theres the pool & gym, but to be honest I cant see that being a player and am pretty sure the golf clubs are packed on saturdays due to competitions. I suppose the Driving Range in Killenard is another possibility. Anyway, just thought I'd kick off a thread, as even if we dont end up doing something it'd be nice to find out whats around or any events coming up. Thanks.

sydthebeat

Silent Rain wrote: »

Hey
I have a couple of mates coming down for the weekend and was wondering about how I could distract them from the pub until a reasonable hour, maybe organise a game of Pitch & Putt or something. Does anybody have any details on P&P courses around Port, or any other ideas ? Obviously I konw theres the pool & gym, but to be honest I cant see that being a player and am pretty sure the golf clubs are packed on saturdays due to competitions. I suppose the Driving Range in Killenard is another possibility. Anyway, just thought I'd kick off a thread, as even if we dont end up doing something it'd be nice to find out whats around or any events coming up. Thanks.

a possibility is the golf course in portlaoise, ring ahaed to make sure theres no competitions on.... the course itself isnt great.. it used to be a par 3, but some holes have been extended... i think its a par 70.
maybe the Heath golf course as well....

theres bowling in portlaoise which is good craic!!

Steve_o

Silent Rain wrote: »

Hey
I have a couple of mates coming down for the weekend and was wondering about how I could distract them from the pub until a reasonable hour, maybe organise a game of Pitch & Putt or something. Does anybody have any details on P&P courses around Port, or any other ideas ? Obviously I konw theres the pool & gym, but to be honest I cant see that being a player and am pretty sure the golf clubs are packed on saturdays due to competitions. I suppose the Driving Range in Killenard is another possibility. Anyway, just thought I'd kick off a thread, as even if we dont end up doing something it'd be nice to find out whats around or any events coming up. Thanks.

The driving range in Killenard is a laugh alright, a bit expensive tho... there is a pitch and putt course in Bracknagh... 10min drive from Port. Other than that, there's the par 3 golf course in Killenard (the green fees for the main course are ridiculous), the golf course in Garryhinch etc.

Kingdom

The pitch and putt course in Bracknagh is gone and from what I've been told it was a shytehole. Pitch and putt is my thing and I've been thinking about getting one set up in Port, but didn't know who to approach. The council perhaps.

Steve_o

Kingdom wrote: »

The pitch and putt course in Bracknagh is gone and from what I've been told it was a shytehole. Pitch and putt is my thing and I've been thinking about getting one set up in Port, but didn't know who to approach. The council perhaps.

Bracknagh P&P course was a fabled institution!!!:D

The local councillors Ray Cribbon, Paul Mitchell etc. they might help.

Kingdom

Steve_o wrote: »

Bracknagh P&P course was a fabled institution!!!:D

The local councillors Ray Cribbon, Paul Mitchell etc. they might help.

I'm caught between a rock and a hard place on it though, do you ask council for help only to find there's no interest or do you build up interest only to find there's no help?
In my experience the society thing or a club only works if its relatively close to the area your society is based in. I'm sure the council would have commonage or whatever land like that would be called, that they would be willing to lease or run.

Steve_o

Kingdom wrote: »

I'm caught between a rock and a hard place on it though, do you ask council for help only to find there's no interest or do you build up interest only to find there's no help?
In my experience the society thing or a club only works if its relatively close to the area your society is based in. I'm sure the council would have commonage or whatever land like that would be called, that they would be willing to lease or run.

Maybe, but in Portarlington, most of the "free" land is being sold to developers, there's the peoples park, but other than that i don't know of any "commonage" in Portarlington... worth checking it out tho, i could be wrong!

ports best

the par 3 in the heritage is good crack, its 18 hole par 3,,, i was charged €10 which is very good for out there, portlaoise is good for a bit of crack €20 and i think we have clubs out there as well if you dont have any, in the heath the driveing range is €5 for 90 balls good aul crack to

Kingdom

Steve_o wrote: »

Maybe, but in Portarlington, most of the "free" land is being sold to developers, there's the peoples park, but other than that i don't know of any "commonage" in Portarlington... worth checking it out tho, i could be wrong!

I was mroe thinking along the lines of land within say a kilometre of the edge of the town limit. There is a mass of land up around Lough Gate that used to be used for football pitches and either side of the moastervein rd.

Kingdom

ports best wrote: »

the par 3 in the heritage is good crack, its 18 hole par 3,,, i was charged €10 which is very good for out there, portlaoise is good for a bit of crack €20 and i think we have clubs out there as well if you dont have any, in the heath the driveing range is €5 for 90 balls good aul crack to

what distances are the PAr 3 in Killenard? that is good value.

Steve_o

Kingdom wrote: »

I was mroe thinking along the lines of land within say a kilometre of the edge of the town limit. There is a mass of land up around Lough Gate that used to be used for football pitches and either side of the moastervein rd.

Alot of the land near Lough Gate on the Lea/Killenard side is farm land and alot of it has been sterilised (i.e. No Planning Permission granted without the farmers say so...)

ports best

the furthest one i think is 197 yards and the shortest would be for me prob a 9 iron, its for notin though for a game im goin out saturday 4 a round

Kingdom

ports best wrote: »

the furthest one i think is 197 yards and the shortest would be for me prob a 9 iron, its for notin though for a game im goin out saturday 4 a round

Hmm that would be par 3 alright a good bit longer than what I'd be used to. Thanks though.

Kingdom

Steve_o wrote: »

Alot of the land near Lough Gate on the Lea/Killenard side is farm land and alot of it has been sterilised (i.e. No Planning Permission granted without the farmers say so...)

Yeah i figured a lot of it would be farm land alright and I doubt there are that many generous farmers out there. With all the building going on around the town I would have expected the council to have reserved some land for amenities

Silent Rain

The land directly across the road from Avon would be ideal, but that is owned by whoever purchase the Avon factory and then they ploughed it up in reprisal to Port Gaa club blocking their attempt to get planning permission on it so now it's pretty much useless to both. I think most of the land is either side of the bog road is farmer owned.

LeahBaby

You could always go bowling :):):)

men and golf!

sydthebeat

i cannot think of any council or 'commonage' land in Port apart from the Peoples Park (or pairc na habhann, as i thinks its called now?)...

Even if there was i couldnt see the council leasing it to what essentially would be a private 'for profit' enterprise.

If you check the Portarlington development you will see that there are large areas of land set for amenities...
http://www.laois.ie/media/Media,3864,en.pdf

theres large areas along the river that are set, you wil also see a proposal for a new relief road that would serve these areas.... That would be ideal for what you are proposing, however i think you realistically need to look at this pitch and putt as a business venture, with perhaps a long term lease off the landowners that are affected by this land zoning

Kingdom

I'm not sure what you think I'm referring to, but believe me it certainly isn't a private for profit enterprise. What I would be referring to would be a pitch and putt club for a community, like they have in Tullamore, Clara, Kilbeggan, Athlone, Mullingar, Slane, Navan, numerous places in Dublin, Cork Waterford.
There is an amatuer association called the PPUI (www.ppui.ie) which is a union of pitch and putt clubs in ireland. any money that comes into the club goes back into the club in terms of equipment, facilities, rent, annual prizes, but by no means does any money go into the pocket of any individual, and I'm 100% serious on that.

As I said in another post its my main hobby, and see the joy it can bring to people particularily kids, and one of the main things it does is bring a sense of community to an area, particularily a place like Portarlington where identity is up in the air at the moment.

Most clubs that I know of came about through extremely generous people in the communities allowing land to be used, and through people volunteering massive amounts of time to cultivate something that ends up as a source of pride for the area.

To be honest I'm slightly insulted that something I suggested as a benefit to Portarlington was misread as a something of a business venture.

Thanks for the link to the development plan though that may come in useful.

sydthebeat

I absolutely did not mean to insult anyone kingdom. My point is that you would have a much better chance of setting up such an amenity if it was a business venture. Otherwise you are hoping for a philatropic farmer wanting to give away land (i think theyre thin on the ground to be honest), and probably funding from the council to help set it up (again, somthing thats very short in supply). I know from being on committees how extremly hard it is to get monies from either councils or governemnt departments... they will always tell you its there, but trying to access it is like trying to pass a kidney stone.

ports best

ah leahbaby whats wrong with men and golf

Curvy Vixen

ports best wrote: »

ah leahbaby whats wrong with men and golf

It's just bowling but with a big stick!

Ruby-J

Curvy Vixen wrote: »

It's just bowling but with a big stick!

and a small ball...

ports best

sounds good actually a big stick,,, curvy you dorty thing

Ruby-J

ports best wrote: »

sounds good actually a big stick,,, curvy you dorty thing

Tsk tsk tsk Ports Best...what are we gonna do with you at all at all! :cool:

Kingdom

sydthebeat wrote: »

I absolutely did not mean to insult anyone kingdom. My point is that you would have a much better chance of setting up such an amenity if it was a business venture. Otherwise you are hoping for a philatropic farmer wanting to give away land (i think theyre thin on the ground to be honest), and probably funding from the council to help set it up (again, somthing thats very short in supply). I know from being on committees how extremly hard it is to get monies from either councils or governemnt departments... they will always tell you its there, but trying to access it is like trying to pass a kidney stone.

No problem Syd.

I hear what you're saying but such a venture would never get out of its infancy if you approached it as a business, and to be honest a community based project is far more enjoyable and fulfilling.
If someone was approached in terms of leasing land, rent would obviously be paid, I'm certainly not expecting anyone to hand over a site for nothing, but a proper pitch and putt course is not hard to get going. Quite a bit of time has to be volunteered to get something going from scratch alright but not a lot of land is needed, a couple of acres can work.
Obviously its a selfish motive for me because I love the sport and to have a club in my home town would be brilliant for me, but there are benefits for kids and for families, I've seen this first hand.

I remember when we moved first that there was a society in the East end so I thought there may have been an interest.

LeahBaby

Do mini golf!!! in the industrial estate in portlaoise. Kinda tiny but fun when your locked..!