By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Minister Catherine Martin has said that the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the interest in outdoor activities, as she opened a new zip-line trail in the Dublin mountains.

The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media was speaking at Zipit Forest Adventures’ course in Tibradden Wood on Monday.

The adventure centre’s new Zip Trail course, funded through a €200,000 government investment, includes 12 ziplines which add up to more than 500 metres in length.

“It’s an amazing amenity that we have here on the mountains – sometimes I think we take the Dublin Mountains for granted,” the Green Party deputy leader said upon launching the course.

“This is a beautiful way of immersing yourself in the great outdoors, which more and more people are turning to since Covid-19.”

Ziplining was originally used as a mode of transport around high altitudes, and later as a scientific tool to examine jungles without disturbing the environment, before becoming a popular tourism activity.

Darren Hreniuk, a Canadian citizen who moved to Costa Rica, was granted a patent to kick-off the first ziplining business in the 1990s.