This is the view from the North Beach of Greystones Harbour yesterday evening. The pier was built in the 1800s and the houses date back to the Victorian era.
The harbour has fallen into disrepair and the place needs a bit of a facelift, it’s sad to see how rundown it is. However, yesterday plans went through for a €300m marina development including a new town square, four and a half storey buildings with 375 apartments and shops, and berthing for 230 boats built by a partnership between Wicklow CoCo and private developers. You can follow this LINK to see architectural drawings of how it will look. I’ve heard it described as using an atom bomb to kill a fly…or, on the other side, that Greystones will be the envy of all other coastal towns.
This marina isn’t an overnight development. They’ve been trying to push it through for about eleven years now but it has been very controversial. Even many who would say they are in favour of a marina development of some kind say that this proposal is just too much. Over 6000 objections to the new marina were submitted and alternative smaller suggestions were put forward but yesterday the announcement was made that the original plans are going through anyway with no scaling back at all.
It kind of makes you feel quite helpless really. I know for me as a newbie in Greystones, even trying to understand what’s going on is difficult because it’s such a flashpoint that any discussions can get heated pretty quickly.
So I just take photos.
7 replies on “Greystones Harbour”
That picture with the splash is a great capture. Your little one has lovely hair. What a girly thing to say.
This development is a complete outrage. Any planning system whit permits this kind of development is indeed corrupt. The Irish planning system is designed for the big property developers and not the ordinary people. Wicklow County Council are a disgrace.
Nice shots Claire and you have shown the natural beauty of the area very well. I saw the newspaper coverage of the Marina. It seems very modern, I’m a little nervous that it’s OTT for the locality but hopefully great minds have thought it through!
I too saw the architectural illustrations in the newspaper. From those at least, it seems the development would be somewhat at odds with the natural charm of the place.
By the way, I love the last photo. Great contrast between foreground and background. Very eye-catching.
In their defence of the controversial, so-called “re-development” of Greystones harbour, Wicklow County Council trot out the usual cliched hyperbole about “world class” facilities and a “rejuvenated” harbour.
In reality, this is a monstrosity, the proverbial blot on the landscape, totally out of keeping with the essential low-rise character of Greystones village,which will obscure irreparably the view of the sweep of coastline from Greystones north to Bray Head.
In addition, and to add insult to injury, part of the land being used for this exploitation is public foreshore. This is a worrying and unsettling precedent. Those swashbuckling “developers†merrily carving up the Irish countryside care little for such sentimental twaddle.
“Progress†and “development†are the swashbucklers’ watchwords and those Luddites opposing their vision of how this country should be, would, no doubt, face accusations of not being prepared to move with the times.
Those of us who believe our countryside should be treated in a sympathetic, respectful fashion, rather than having it ravaged by greedy speculators appear to be forever fighting a rearguard action.
No sooner had the proposal to “develop†Dun Laoghaire public baths appear to have been put to bed than this project gets the green light and the same threat lingers over the baths at Blackrock.
Our coast now, as well as the countryside, is up for grabs. Many of us are tired of being lectured by officialdom as to what we want and what’s good for us.
However, in the case of Greystones, that this monstrosity would be permitted was entirely foreseeable in the light of the continuing ribbon developmentsouth of the town between thereand Kilcoole, where ranks ofapartments give it the appearance of downtown Miami, minus the weather.
Sadly, given that we’ve seen once again the same golden circle continue to line up to payhomage at Bertie’s tent at Ballybrit and the Government’s dogged determination to run a motorway alongside the symbol of our national identity at Tara, the vandalism of a run down Victorian harbour is scarcely surprising.
DAVID MARLBOROUGH, KENILWORTH PARK, DUBLIN 6W
Cherish these pictures because you will never get them again. The hording at the start of this awful development has seen to that.
Those shots you took are wonderful. Tempers will always flare when plans are made to update any historic site. I wish a compromise would have been reached. The full marina plan sounds like it will leave no remnants of the harbour’s past. Sad indeed.