Adare Manor car park expansion stalled over fears for medieval wall
EXPANSION plans at JP McManus’s five-star Adare Manor hotel and golf resort have fallen foul of Government heritage experts who believe that the development might impact on the town’s buried medieval walls.
Last month, Limerick County Council gave the green light to the plush resort, which is due to host the 2026 Ryder Cup, to construct a new 40-space car park.
However, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has put the plan on hold after appealing that decision to An Bord Pleanála and it now wants permission for the development to be denied.
The Department has said that the location of the proposed car park is in an area where remains of the medieval defences in the picturesque and historic town may be located.
“The town wall may cross through the proposed development site and may be directed impacted by the proposed development,” The Dept said in its appeal.
It argued that the Council planning decision cannot be considered sustainable unless it can be demonstrated that the archaeological heritage will not be adversely impacted – until the location of the town wall has been confirmed through archaeological investigations.
The Departmentis recommending that the appeals board refuse permission to “facilitate appropriate consideration of archaeological issues in the context of a new planning application to the planning authority”.
In lodging the appeal, it exercised rarely-used powers after pointing out that it didn’t receive notification of the plans and didn’t have an opportunity to make a submission to the Council.
The Adare hotel company, Tizzard Holdings lodged an archaeological assessment with the plans. That document concluded that it is not considered likely that the proposed development will cause any direct or visual impact to any identified archaeological monuments.
However, it said that as the proposed development site is 15m from the town defences, there was a possibility that previously undocumented subsurface archaeological features might exist within the boundary of the development.
As part of its permission, Limerick City and County Council attached a number of conditions aimed at protecting the site’s heritage.
One was that if an archaeological survey finds artefacts prior to work starting, an expert could halt the project – pending a decision on how best to deal with the remains.