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OVER 20 MONTHS into a prolonged and divisive dispute at Castletown House in Celbridge, Co Kildare there appears to be no sign of a resolution.
Over the May bank holiday weekend, property and vehicles belonging to the Office of Public Works (OPW) were badly damaged at a site used for Castletown House workers.
Vandals first cut the CCTV wires to the site at Donaghcumper House, an estate overlooking the River Liffey and bordering Castletown House.
They proceeded to overturn four OPW vehicles, and drive a cherrypicker into the river.
The same site was targeted by arson attacks on 22 and 24 April, which impacted outbuildings and staff welfare units.
The damage is estimated to have cost around €500,000. Gardaí have made no arrests yet in connection with the attack.
The attack has awakened public interest in the Castletown House dispute – but what is the significance of the house, and why has it become the centre of such a massive row?
Castletown House is a ‘Palladian’ country house built in 1722 by William Connolly, an influential Irish political figure.
The house borders Celbridge town in Co Kildare – a growing hub for Dublin commuters with a population just over 20 thousand people.
It’s also just minutes away from another Kildare commuter town, Leixlip.
The house marked the centre of a once-sprawling country estate, which spanned an impressive 800 acres. Over the centuries, this land was gradually divided and sold.
In 1994, the Irish State – through the OPW – acquired the house and a surrounding parcel, initiating a slow process of reassembling the estate. To date, the OPW has managed to reclaim around 227 acres of the historic grounds.
As owners of the historic demesne, OPW staff are responsible for maintaining both the estate and house itself, which is a popular spot with locals and guests to the area – before 2023, the site garnered up to a million visitors annually.
The OPW are using Donaghcumper House as they claim they have no vehicular access to Castletown estate – though this claim is heavily disputed by locals and protest groups.
Kildare County Council granted the OPW temporary use of Donaghcumper, and OPW staff are ferried by bus to and from the estate.
The OPW previously used an entrance to Castletown located just off the M4 motorway, which also led to a 250-space car park servicing around 250,000 vehicles a year.
The entrance, originally built to facilitate a concert in 2007, became the de facto entrance for staff, contingent on a rolling, amicable annual licence fee to the then-landowners, Janus Securities.
In 2023, Janus Securities decided to sell their 235 acres of the estate, and the OPW were outbid – the land went to Killross Properties and Springwood, two Kildare-based companies for around €5m.
Talks between the new landowners and the OPW over access broke down shortly after the purchase, and a fence was installed on the M4 entrance – fully blocking access.
With the M4 route closed, the OPW was left scrambling to implement an alternative.
Its interim solution involved expanding use of the Lime Avenue entrance – a pedestrian route connected to Celbridge town which is now used for OPW staff and limited vehicle access.
The path sees heavy footfall from locals, many of whom say that the path is unsuitable for work vehicles.
New public vehicular access routes were proposed by the OPW on Lime Avenue, including a new car park which would be located along the pedestrian walkway, but a number of community groups formed to object this.
One community group involved was the Save Castletown Gate Protectors, who have maintained a presence at the entrance to Lime Avenue since September 2023.
The gate protectors argue that the path is too narrow and unsafe for modern vehicle traffic, and would restrict wheelchair users and parents with buggies from using the avenue.
The OPW has defended the shift as a temporary and necessary measure to keep Castletown House operational, and suggested that heavy vehicles could be led down Lime Avenue with someone walking in front of it, to ensure safety of pedestrians using the path.
However, the OPW later backed away from this promise, and have now outlined their plans for a small buggy to escort OPW vehicles up the lane.
Suzanne Clifford, a member of the gate protectors, said that the OPW “simply want to make that pedestrian way into a road”, describing Lime Avenue as a very valuable local amenity.
The protest group launched a petition against OPW use of the avenue, which has amassed around 10,000 signatures.
Another gate protector, Deirdre Browne, said that during a meeting with OPW representatives on Monday, the OPW did not propose any alternatives to escorting their vehicles up Lime Avenue with a buggy.
“That’s really disappointing for us, because this is disproportionately impacting the vulnerable people in our community,” Browne said.
Browne added that the OPW “aren’t addressing local concerns” in writing at all, claiming they are “just talking around in circles”.
While little progress has been made in relation to Lime Avenue, Save Castletown Committee, a separate organisation to the gate protectors, have sought a High Court injunction to restore public access to Castletown House via the M4 entrance.
The group claimed in the High Court on Monday that the fence blocking public access to the house and its estate is an “unauthorised development”.
The committee is seeking an order requiring the owners to remove the gates and fencing, on the grounds that planning permission was not obtained for their erection.
Save Castletown Committee have been granted a hearing date in the High Court on 29 July.
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