€24m regional sports hub at Letterkenny secures funding support

Funding has been secured for a €24m sports campus for Letterkenny Regional Sports-Activity Hub. Hamilton Architects are leading the design team tasked with delivering the project for Atlantic Technological University (ATU).

The project aims to address a deficit in the area’s sporting infrastructure with the creation of a high quality, multi-pitch sports facility and community hub suitable for university students as well as local and regional sports teams.

A 42-acre site at Carnamoggagh Lower/Knocknamona will deliver 9 pitchesincluding full-size 3G artificial grass pitches for GAA and soccer and a non-turf cricket pitch – and a 1,000m2 dome with indoor sports facilities, training area and hurling/handball wall.

There would also be a 6-lane athletic sprint track, walking trail loop, informal cross-country route, children’s play park and landscaping to include a community and biodiversity gardens.

A pavilion building equipped with meeting, changing and catering facilities will support the use of the pitches and ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the complex.

ATU and Donegal Council, as lead applicant, were successful in obtaining funding under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund. Other applicants included Ladies Gaelic Football Association and Cricket Ireland.

The fund is provided by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and aims to further the National Development Plan and the National Sports Policy.

A wide range of local sports clubs, organisations, schools and industries will share the facilities. Donegal Ladies Gaelic Football Association, currently without a home ground, are interested in using the site as their training centre and youth academy.

The project also boosts the NW Cricket Union’s aim of increasing participation in their sport while catering for a growing multi-nationality population in the region.

Three schools - St Eunan’s College, Colaiste Ailigh and Little Angels Special School - with the last two within a few hundred metres of the site – are keen to use the facility in off-peak hours.