Here’s an interesting new way to see the city.

Cork City Council has announced that a permanent urban orienteering route is being developed to guide visitors past the buildings of Shandon’s Architectural Conservation Area (ACA).

The route will consist of a series of fixed checkpoints marked by a brightly coloured, distinctive orienteering flag.

Participants will use clues and a map with the locations of the checkpoints circled to navigate from one checkpoint to another. Each checkpoint will also have a QR code linking to a webpage with more information on the area and an illustration relevant to that location.

As part of the initiative, a public competition is being organised to encourage people to go out and look at the area with fresh eyes and submit drawings that capture the character and features of the area. The winning drawings (you can submit a photograph of your drawing here) will be printed as permanent markers to identify each orienteer checkpoint.

In addition to accepting images, the competition website will have the capacity to accept audio uploads giving residents the opportunity to share their stories of the area.

“We would really like to see the residents living in the area engage with this project.” said artist Sheelagh Broderick, who is delivering the orienteering route in collaboration with Abarta Heritage.

“The project has been designed observing social distancing guidelines as all information will be placed online, but as not everyone is online, we hope that people will spread the word through their own networks”.