- Joined
- Mar 30, 2016
At least it's not as bad as on this side of the Irish Sea. 2 rinks in Belfast, and none on the rest of the island. Admittedly, it looks like the rink in Dundalk could be re-opening soon, but that would still only be 3 rinks. All three of these rinks are located on the east coast, and on the top half of the island at that. What about the rest of the island? Nada!
Hence Conor Stakelum trains in Dundee, and the Irish Champs are held in London!
We have family who skate in Dundee. Both Dundee and Kirkcaldy have very longstanding hockey teams, and ice rinks, so quite a lot of skating going on in that area.
Dundee lost its old rink, and was without one for a long time, but when the current one opened, all the old timers crawled out of the woodwork. It seems to have a healthy figure skating community now, with Natasha and Karly, along with Conor.
I'm told that the skating shows arranged using local figure skaters are very popular.
As a kid, I skated a couple of times at Richmond. Another London rink that is now long gone.
The touristy temporary winter rinks seem to thrive. I feel as if permanent rinks should be able to make a go of things, if they are in areas with decent transport links. I suppose there is a lot of competition for suitable sites, and other developers can pay more.