Leixlip Town centre is almost unique in that it has two significant rivers, the Rye and the Liffey, defining both ends of the Main Street.

This provides a great potential amenity value for riverside walks, recreational areas and leisure-associated development, which would greatly increase Leixlip’s attraction as a tourist or leisure centre.

The town also boasts a number of other pedestrian amenity areas. The Rye river walk continues in a westerly direction with the development of the Rye River Park while St. Catherines Park and the Black Avenue provides pedestrian recreational area at the eastern end of the town.

The Liffey walk is presently accessible from Ralph Square, the public car park, the laneway beside Sams Takeaway and by Paul Kelly Solicitors with the potential to further develop this walk to extend to Liffey Bridge. This potential to extend the riverside walk to the liffey bridge should be cosidered in detail. (see Proposal No.7)

While people living locally make use of the of the river amenity parks, visitors would be unaware of the existance of the riverside parks. The Liffey is only visible from the two bridges and is concealed behind Main Street. The use of a coherent identity to indicate the entrances would give the riverside park a presence on Main Street. This could be achieved by forming ‘gateways’ at each access point which provide an identity to the park and define the entrance. This could be achieved, for example, with the use of wrought iron decorative archways and stone piers which would provide an attractive feature while co-relating the different entrances. (See Proposal 2 and 4)

The Town Council has made a number of positive interventions with regard to the riverside walk, in particular, the cobblelock paving area and the fencing adjacent to the public carpark.

At present this area is unsightly as a hotel is currently under construction.The development of the hotel should help create activity along the riverside and the development also proposes landscaping which will enhance the visual amenity. Close consultation with the
developer is recommended to ensure that the
construction is progressed, and that the landscaping is carried out to the benefit of the river amenity and the town centre.

The Rye River Park is well maintained and landscaped and provides a pleasant amenity area.The recently erected interpretative panel details the flora, fauna and history of the rivers Rye and Liffey and marks the park's entrance.

However, there are a number of further improvements which could be made.

The two E.S.B./ telegraph poles are unsightly and, if possible, should be removed and the cables placed underground.

The entrance to the park could be further improved with a practicval sculptural element. See Proposal 1

Sediment which has built up by Rye bridge after the heavy rainfall looks unsightly. This debris could be removed but it is likely that it will re-occur after suscessive heavy rainfall. An altenative solution is to construct a weir
downriver from the debris which will cover up the sediment.