The famous jaunting cars of Killarney have today – July 14th 2009 been banned from Killarney National park after drivers refused to fit them with dung-catching devices.The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has said the soiling of pathways in Killarney National Park by the drivers’ horses was unacceptable.
They have even offered to pay for the horse “nappies” but the jarveys, claim they are dangerous. Forty five jarveys have licences to operate 66 jaunting cars in the park.
They offer tours of Muckross, Torc and Ross Island on 15km of internal roads and paths to almost 1m people who visit the County Kerry park every year
After 18 months of consultations and negotiations, the NPWS closed the jaunting car entrances to the park at 6am this morning.
Similar dung catchers are in use on Blackpool beach in the UK.