{"id":100805,"date":"2025-10-03T08:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T08:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/100805\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T08:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T08:36:07","slug":"cairn-homes-offers-e75m-package-to-clontarf-golf-club-members-to-relocate-to-kinsealy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/100805\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairn Homes offers \u20ac75m package to Clontarf golf club members to relocate to Kinsealy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Ireland\u2019s biggest housebuilder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cairn-homes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cairn-homes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cairn Homes<\/a> has offered members of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/construction\/clontarf-golf-club-given-offer-to-relocate-to-haughey-estate-under-housing-plan-1.4740113\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/construction\/clontarf-golf-club-given-offer-to-relocate-to-haughey-estate-under-housing-plan-1.4740113\" target=\"_blank\">Clontarf Golf &amp; Bowling Club<\/a> a package worth \u20ac75 million to relocate the club to a Paul McGinley-designed course in Kinsealy, north <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\">Dublin<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Under the terms of the offer, Cairn Homes would pay \u20ac15 million in cash to the club and provide a budget of \u20ac60 million to cover the costs of constructing a golf course, clubhouse, practice ground, bowling green and associated facilities at a 185-acre Abbeyville site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The proposed site was once part of an estate owned by former taoiseach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/charles-haughey\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/charles-haughey\/\">Charles Haughey<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This is Cairn\u2019s latest attempt to engage with the Clontarf club on a land swap, having previously made an approach in March. This time around, the property developer has put a monetary value on the offer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If it secures the land, Cairn, which has partnered with Green Land Capital on the proposal, hopes to build \u201cthousands of homes\u201d on the 72-acre site used by the club. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a letter sent in late September to the Clontarf club\u2019s president Anna Marie Dufficy and to Gerry Donnelly, the chair of its management committee, Cairn\u2019s chief executive Michael Stanley outlined details of its offer, which has been dubbed Project Green. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He indicated that Cairn would engage with Dublin City Council, CIE (which owns two acres at the site) and the club to secure rezoning and planning permission for the land, which is located 4.3km (2.6 miles) from O\u2019Connell Street. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Clontarf club owns about 10 acres of the land, operating under a sporting lease from Dublin City Council for another 62 acres. All costs for the development of the new golf course would be verified by consultants appointed by the club\u2019s members, Cairn has said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/09\/03\/house-builder-cairn-homes-sees-profits-after-tax-fall-by-almost-a-third\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">State must build 25,000 apartments annually to hit housing targets, says Cairn Homes chiefOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The proposal is subject to the Clontarf lands being rezoned for residential development and a \u201csatisfactory\u201d planning grant for new homes, along with the granting of permission for a new golf course in Kinsealy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The new course in Kinsealy would be wholly owned by members of the Clontarf club. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">\u201cCairn remains of the view that through open dialogue and meaningful collaboration, a compelling offer can be put forward to members of CGBC that will meet their aspirations,\u201d the letter from Mr Stanley stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Cairn chief has also offered to present its plan to club members, alongside former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">In a statement to The Irish Times, Cairn confirmed that it had \u201cengaged\u201d with the officers of the Clontarf club to \u201cexplore the possibility of engaging in a land swap to potentially develop several thousand new homes on its existing lands, subject to zoning and planning permission\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cCairn has proposed to the officers the construction of a new golf course, a clubhouse, a bowling green, a practice ground and associated facilities at Abbeyville, Kinsealy for an investment of \u20ac60 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIn addition, Cairn has proposed a monetary contribution of \u20ac15 million to Clontarf Golf and Bowling Club. This initiative is at a preliminary stage and requires consideration from the club members.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Clontarf club is thought to have about 1,400 members and they would have to approve any deal. In 2022 members rejected an approach by Green Land for a land swap deal but this was before Cairn Homes became involved in the project in the past year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Clontarf club was contacted for comment. Green Land, which is led by businessman Ray Cotter and his sister Barbara Cotter, was also contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In 2007 members of the Clontarf club accepted a \u20ac125 million deal from Capel Developments that would have resulted in a payout of \u20ac100,000 to each full member and a relocation to the Portmarnock Links course. However, the deal fell apart in 2008 when Capel pulled out as the property crash loomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s biggest housebuilder Cairn Homes has offered members of Clontarf Golf &amp; Bowling Club a package worth \u20ac75&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,16080,32943,52,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,62163,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-100805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cairn-homes","11":"tag-clontarf","12":"tag-dublin","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-paul-mcginley","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}