Tayto Park visitors invited to try sensory tunnel for Irish Guide Dogs event

Tayto Park is set to open a sensory tunnel for visitors next week.

The instalment at the park aims to help visitors understand what it's like to be visually impaired. Guests will be invited to walk though the tunnel blindfolded while street noises and loud traffic are played over the speakers. They will have to navigate a brick wall,  a wooden fence, netting, grass and fur, feeling their way through the five-metre long tunnel by following floor panels with bumps similar to the tactile pavement used to guide vision impaired people on the streets. The experience will run next Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 August at the Co. Meath attraction. It'll be part of two awareness days for charity partner Assistance Dogs in association with Irish Guide Dogs for the blind. Vistors will be able to give money to the cause while Tayto Park has also pledged to donate €5,000. The charity thanked Tayto Park for getting behind them, with chairman of its board Patrick Burke saying that fundraising allows them to give families a future and give people who may be marginalised personal freedom.

"Support such as this is fundamental to our ability to reach and help families of children with autism and those with visual impairment achieve independence and mobility."