The Office of Public Works (OPW) has acquired lands around Castletown House in Celbridge, Co Kildare, on behalf of the State following a two-year standoff that led to the closure of public parking and access at the heritage site.
Minister of State for the OPW, Kevin “Boxer” Moran, confirmed the purchase on Wednesday.
The OPW has purchased some 235 acres of historic estate lands at the estate for €11.25 million, including an entrance to the estate off the M4, and a public car park which has been closed since 2023.
The OPW acquired Castletown House in 1994 and over the past 30 years has managed to reclaim about 227 acres of the historic grounds in increments.
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In September 2023, following the private sale of nearby land, an entrance and car park near the M4 was closed to the public and OPW staff.
New access routes were proposed by the OPW near Celbridge village, but some locals objected and kept up a presence at the gates.
This led to most OPW staff not accessing the 250-acre site and the grounds not being fully maintained for almost 18 months, until a deal to allow some access to service vehicles was reached in May of this year.
Property and vehicles belonging to the OPW were badly damaged at a site used for Castletown House workers earlier this year.
The OPW said on Wednesday it was committed to restoring access to the estate via the M4 access as soon as possible. In the coming week it “will assess what remedial works, if any, are required in order to facilitate this”.
Further details on a reopening of this access will be provided in due course, it said.
Mr Moran said he wanted to thank OPW staff who work at Castletown for “their dedication and resilience over the last couple of years”.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the local elected representatives, Kildare County Council and the local community in the weeks and months ahead,” he said.
John Conlon, chairman of the OPW, said: “It has been a long-term policy objective of the OPW to reunite the historic lands at Castletown, and despite previous unsuccessful attempts to purchase these lands, we have now delivered an excellent long-term outcome for the State.
“The benefits will accrue to the local community and visitors to the area for generations to come. I look forward to the OPW re-establishing Castletown House and Estate as a premier heritage attraction to be enjoyed by the people of north Kildare, as well as national and international visitors in the years ahead.”
The Irish Georgian Society said it welcomed the purchase. “This acquisition finally safeguards the setting of Ireland’s greatest and most architecturally significant eighteenth-century country house and completes a task embarked on by Desmond Guinness when he bought the house in 1967,” it said.
