One of the golf courses on Howth has been sold to a developer who is looking to make part of the land residential, do you think this is the best move or should it be rewilded and protected?

37 comments

  1. Realistically it’s private land and it’s never going to be rewilded. I’d definitely prefer for it to be housing than a golf course.

  2. Rewilding would be preferable, but it won’t happen since there’s no profit in it, and housing is still better than a golf course in the end.

  4. Funny to see all this space in Howth and the place is still a dose. Don’t think infrastructure could handle more housing although I would welcome any housing.

  7. Its deer park, beside howth castle. Area is lovey and will probably change quite a bit because of new houses, but well, you can build houses on previously touristic places or you start with taller buildings. Most people want neither and then they wonder why is there a housing crisis.

  12. I’m all for preserving urban park land or for ensuring wild spaces are conserved. However, it’s frankly ridiculous to entertain the idea of rewilding any space in a European capital. There’s 95% of the rest of the country to do that in.

  15. If you just make apartment buildings / flats with 10/15 floors. you will save lot of area for the wild and also house a lot of people.

  17. The houses are just gonna be mass sold to private foreign businesses anyway and then put up for huge rent.

  18. It’ll be entertaining when certain TDs that live there, campaign against houses being built there, whilst complaining that the government isn’t building enough houses.

  19. That’s a high frequency train line there. We really shouldn’t have any wasted space close to good transport links if we are to take climate and urban development seriously.

    Frankly we should density the city to prevent sprawl ans that will ultimately be better for the environment.

    There’s also very little you can do in terms of rewinding on a golf course size plot of land surrounded by development on all sides.

    We should be rewinding large swathes of the countryside.

  21. We’re not the best country in the world for considering how people live in a place. Compared to the English capital where the rent is cheaper and has parks near every tube station. I bet anything this land in Dublin will be used for making the most money out of people.

    *source: I was looking at a place to stay on Airbnb in Dublin. Saw a place for > 700 euros per night in Howth. The week before I saw a houseshare somewhere near Blackrock for 365 a night. Dublin is the only place I know of that charges near 100 quid to share a dorm with more than 15 people in it.*

  23. Rewilding doesn’t really make sense when its surrounded on all sides by built up areas. Best option would be housing with green areas thrown in to break up the sprawl a bit

  24. Howth is an upmarket kind of area. I could see a reasonable use of this land being very premium housing?

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    Have the place be gated, put a mix of luxury / large apartments and detached houses spread around it. Keep some of the course as a large park area. If done properly, you could have megabucks houses in there and it’d not be too out of place with Howth’s general image (rather than trying to do the same somewhere in Roscommon, where it would invariably flop).

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    That said, as far as I know, there are density rules now, so instead of anything like I described (ie; targeted at millionaires to keep them happy) it’ll be a joe-soap house estate with nothing special about it, and it’ll be aimed at every randomer that lives in a 100km radius, which will ultimately just pull the overall price of housing up (as the developer surely paid serious money for the land, so will want to recoup that).

  25. They spent big money on it and are getting rid of the course completely and block access to the hiking trail at the side of the club house. Shame it’s a nice public course cheap for beginners and adds a lot to the community considering it’s a public course so there all about being inclusive

  26. It’s a shitty move BUT everybody is complaining about the housing crisis. You can’t have your cake and eat it

  28. One of the main factors that makes Howth such a sought after place is the fact that it is not (yet) an overbuilt area. It’s an idealist seaside town. Eliminating a golf course creates a higher population which creates a more crowded built up area. The golf course there (assuming we’re talking about Deer Park) is stunning with some amazing views. Would be a shame to see it go.

  33. We have a shortage of good high frequency transport lines as it is. And you want to rewild the areas next to them? Forget just housing, those areas should be medium density apartments.

    Plenty of land in the countryside to rewild.

  34. There’s no space for extra roads and public transport in Howth is already poor at the best of times, I say this as a person who could throw a stone from their front door into the golf course, there needs to be extra transport put in if this were to work, as well as the new apartment block being put up on the old tech-crete site it would overload the roads even more than they already are in the mornings

  36. I think the half (maybe a quarter) closest the the train should be while the rest is turned into a protected green space

  37. Some.many of Irelands beauty spots have been taken over by golf courses, for the pleasure of the elite. Old head of kinsale really pisses me off.

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