Communities
| The Tochar Valley is a beautiful area of rural communities stretching
from Balla to Murrisk. Steeped in antiquity, the unspoiled countryside is
liberally sprinkled with churches, Celtic artifacts and historical sites.
The Tochar Phadraig pilgrim route, which links these townlands and villages
for a distance of 55 km., follows a section of the ancient chariot road
of the Kings of Connaught which ran from Tulsk in Roscommon to Croagh Patrick,
the holy mountain in the West.
The Tochar Valley is located in Connaught Province, County Mayo in the
West of Ireland (see red area on map to right). |
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The original communities of the Tochar Valley Rural Community Network include:
Aughagower |
Balla |
Ballintubber |
Ballyglass |
Ballyheane |
Belcarra |
Brackloon |
Carnacon |
Clogher |
Drumlin |
Killawalla |
Mayo Abbey |
Manulla |
Murrisk |
Partry |
Other communities working with the Tochar Valley Rural Community Network include Cong, Islandeady, Louisburgh, and Tourmekady.
In 1999, fourteen villages came together to form the Tochar Valley Rural Community Network. “Networking is where small rural communities, instead of working independently, liaise with each other under one umbrella organisation. Basically it is about helping communities to help themselves.” Tochar Valley Rural Community Network Newsletter, 1999.
The Tochar Network’s goals are:
• To empower local communities to “tackle for themselves the problems
they face and consider to be important.”
• To stem the present decline in rural communities, e.g. rural depopulation,
changing trends in agriculture and out migration of young people
• To ensure that essential services will continue to be provided in the
Tochar Valley
• To promote and encourage income generating activities, e.g. rural community
tourism, craft productions, small food companies, etc.
• To include in these developments, small farmers, rural dwellers, rural
women and youth
• To preserve & enhance the wonderful archaeological and historical
monuments of the Tochar Valley
• To respect, create, and develop an awareness of our natural environment
