Welcome!
Welcome to the Website of the Dublin Mountains Initiative (DMI).  The DMI is a voluntary body established in July 2006 with the aim of starting a process that would lead to the development of an outdoor recreational area in the Dublin Mountains.  Such an area would be for the benefit of all who appreciate the outdoor environment – specialist users, educational groups, families and casual walkers.  We see the Dublin Mountains as a largely untapped resource and believe that such an area should be developed and managed in a sustainable manner with particular attention being paid to maintaining and improving the integrity and aesthetic value of the mountain environment.

Our Vision
Our vision is that the Dublin Mountain area be recognised as an area of outstanding recreational amenity and developed as such for the benefit of all.  We believe that this process should be done in consultation with all interested parties and with the consent of all landowners involved.

For this to succeed there needs to be a unified development and management policy for the whole of the Dublin Mountains.  We would like to see this resulting in the following:-

1. Sustainable multiuse way marked trails. These would include regular walking trails, educational trails for school use, trails with disabled access and trails for specialist users.  All trails would be well signed and maintained.
2. Sensitively sited car parking and associated facilities.
3. Provision of better public transport access to the mountains.
4. A Ranger Programme
5. A Dublin Way - linking to The Wicklow Way and to the coast.
6. A designated website and information programme.

There are few capital cities in the world with such ready access to the outdoor environment.  With imagination and the provision of the proper resources the Dublin Mountains could become a major attraction that would benefit both the people who live here and those who visit the city.

Progress to Date
Despite having been in existence less than a year the DMI has already made considerable progress. We have made presentations to the Strategic Policy Committees of both Dun Laoghaire  Rathdown and South Dublin County Councils and also to the Dublin Regional Authority. As a result of these presentations substantial funding has been allocated to investigating the possibility of placing a recreational park in the Dublin Mountains.

In mid 2006 Coillte Teoranta, which is one of the major land-owners in the Dublin Mountains, initiated a process to establish an overall recreational strategy for the Dublin Mountains area and the area under their control. It invited Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, South Dublin County Council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (all also major land owners in the mountains) and the DMI to discuss how this might best be accomplished. The result was the establishment of a Steering Group composed of representatives from all these bodies. This Steering Group has been working hard to come up with a plan for the management of recreation in the Dublin Mountains and has made very positive progress to date. It has engaged consultants with a brief to come up with a ten year recreational strategy for the Dublin Mountains and that process is to result in the delivery of a report later in 2007.