Magherafelt pedestrian walkways transformed after £202,000 investment

Date published: 9 August 2019

The improvements to the pedestrian walkways from Broad Street to Union Street and Central car parks included new footpaths, drainage, lighting, painting and the removal of graffiti.

This represents the first phase in a project which will also see the addition of artworks featuring the words and poems of Seamus Heaney to form part of a new Seamus Heaney visitor trails experience.

The works have been funded by the Department for Communities and Mid Ulster District Council which complement the improved connectivity that residents and visitors to the town have already seen following the successful completion of the town’s Public Realm scheme in December 2016.

Pauline Campbell from the Department for Communities said: “The upgrading of these two important linkages within Magherafelt has made the town centre a safer, brighter, more welcoming place to visit and shop for both visitors and locals alike. They are no longer dark and dreary but an extension of the modern public realm.”

Chair of Mid Ulster District Council, Councillor Martin Kearney, welcomed the completion of the work: “These once unattractive and uninviting alleyways have been transformed through this work and the response from local people and local businesses has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I’m delighted to see the first stage complete and I look forward to the next phase, when artistic interpretations of Seamus Heaney’s poetry will be added to reflect the town’s connections with the poet and his work, forming part of a wider trails experience across the landscape which inspired so much of Heaney’s work.”