Portumna has benefitted from significant investment in recent months – but the continuing absence of a hotel in the south-east Galway town remains a major drawback to its efforts to evolve into a major tourist destination.
The town is a popular haunt with boating tourists and those who regularly visit its many attractions like Portumna Castle and the local forest walks but it is still missing one vital component . . . a hotel.
“It would just complete the circle,” declared local Cllr Jimmy McClearn who has now called on the owners of the old Shannon Oaks Hotel, which burned down several years ago, to outline their plans for the building.
“What has been happening in Portumna over the past couple of years has been a real success story. We have a newly renovated harbour, camper van parking facilities, a new car park at the Castle and the support of many of the State agencies.
“The only problem is that we cannot capture the day trippers to Portumna because of the absence of a hotel. We are carrying on without it because we have no choice but the town is crying out for such a facility,” Cllr McClearn said.
The Shannon Oaks Hotel in Portumna was burned down back in 2011 and has since been acquired by the millionaire Comer brothers who, it is understood, have plans to rebuild it and reopen it at some future point. It is not clear when this process will commence.
The loss of the hotel is understood to have cost the town around €2.5 million annually in lost tourism revenue. Last year it was sold by a firm of receivers but so far no works have commenced on the property.
Cllr McClearn now wants the new owners to outline their plans for the hotel and has been trying to make contact with the Comers. So far he has not been successful but said that it would complement the progress that Portumna has been experiencing in recent times.
The newly renovated harbour will open the region up to significant tourism revenue. And that is according to Waterways Ireland, who have described it as a “key destination” along the River Shannon.
The new facilities at the marina include doubling of mooring capacity, upgrade of berths, repaving of the quay area and installation of cut stone walls.
The service block, car parking, services for camper vans and access road have also been upgraded in a joint investment by Waterways Ireland, the Office of Public Works, Fáilte Ireland and Galway County Council.
Eanna Rowe, Western Regional Manager at Waterways Ireland, says the upgrade will provide a significant boost to Portumna and the surround region.
The onshore works include the upgrade of the service block (with toilets and showers), car parking and access road. A further development of integrated services for camper vans has also been completed which will see, for the first time, the provision of facilities and services for the growing numbers of visiting camper vans to the region.
And this week Minister Sean Canney of the OPW has welcomed progress on a new car park at Portumna Castle. The OPW have lodged a planning application with Galway County Council for the project.
The proposal consists of the construction of 20 car park spaces, two disabled parking bays, a large coach and minibus drop-off area and a new pedestrian footpath as a link to the Castle grounds.
The project is designed to create a safe area to park and to make Portumna Castle more accessible for bus tours, Minister Canney said.
“We need to develop facilities to make Galway East more attractive for tourists and this development when completed will enhance Portumna Castle as a tourist attraction,” he added.
Cllr McClearn said that there was so much good happening in Portumna and that all of the agencies were doing their “level best” to contribute to the progress but he added that the provision of a hotel would be the “icing on the cake”.
“Everything is coming together in Portumna and we expect more visitors over the summer but we also want to keep them here to avail of the huge amount of facilities we have to offer. The hotel would just complete the circle as far as we are concerned,” he added.
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