Sir, – Tim King is right that the boreens of the west are a pleasure to cycle, and right that they cost the State next to nothing ( Letters, August 11th). But the improvement he proposes might jeopardise the very thing that makes them quiet boreens and back lanes.
Walking these lanes in Roscommon recently, I found they already have users. People walk and run on them precisely because the absence of signage keeps the traffic away.
Signpost them and they stop being boreens and become routes. Routes attract volume, including volume that arrives by car and parks at the head of the lane. There is no verge to stand aside on, and these are still working roads.
If we want people to find these places, the instrument already exists, and it is a roadmap. – Yours, etc,
BARBARA CLANCY,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.