Now in its thirteenth year running, the aim of the Golden Mile of Galway Awards is to bring rural communities and neighbours together, to highlight a one mile stretch of public road in their area and to recognise and celebrate the features that make up their unique locality, rural roadways, stonewalls, flora and fauna.
This countywide initiative is rolled out on an annual basis by GalwayCounty Council and Galway Rural Development Company Ltd in partnership with Comhair na nOileán Teo and FORUM Connemara.
The first steps to entering the competition is to request a Golden Mile of Galway information pack, gather a local community group together and select a one mile stretch of public roadway outside the 50km speed limit with interesting features of built and natural heritage. Follow the guidance given in the information pack.
The competition involves several category awards:
- Best Natural Heritage Mile
- Best Built HeritageMile
- Best Community effort and Litter Management (Tony Dervan RIP Award)
- Schools Award
- Overall Golden Mile of Galway Award Winner.
Deadline for entries is Friday 19 th August when the official application forms must be submitted with supporting documentation. During September the judges will visit each community, walk the mile, the photographer takes photos of the mile and following that the judging panel convenes and scores given. The entries are considered under the headings of natural and built heritage, community effort and road safety. The results of the competition will be announced at an awards ceremony in December.
All entrants will have the honour of having a photograph of their ‘Golden mile’ included in the specially designed Golden Mile of Galway 2017 calendar which is distributed far and wide. The Golden Mile of Galway first began in 2004 and has successfully run for the last 13 years with over 160 different community entries during that time.
The overall winner of the 2015 Golden Mile of Galway Competition was Lisheenaheilta Golden Mile, Glenamaddy.
The closing date for applications is 4.00pm Friday 19 August 2016
To request an information pack contact Marie Mannion, Heritage Officer, Galway County Council on 091 509198 or email mmannion@galwaycoco.ie or Frank Keane in Galway Rural Development Company on 091 844335 or email fkeane@grd.ie.
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