Mountcharles: Slane concerts at risk from bypass
That’s the claim made by Alex Conyngham, the Earl of Mountcharles and son of Lord Henry Mountcharles whose family who have owned the Slane Castle estate since 1701.
Speaking at the oral hearing into the bypass on the N2 which would cost close to €46 million, he said the conclusion of a report investigating a western route concluded that in terms of “economic, landscape, archaeology, architecture and cultural heritage”, an eastern route was preferred.
Meath County Council is seeking permission for the eastern bypass from An Bord Pleanála because the village has been the scene of multiple fatal accidents and is heavily trafficked by HGV’s on a daily basis.
The western route would take the road less than 500 metres from Slane Castle and the natural amphitheatre in front of the castle which forms the open-air concert arena.
“The future of the rock concerts which have helped to make Slane Castle a national icon and put the village of Slane on the international map would be seriously threatened with the construction of a major route so close to the concert site,” said Earl Mountcharles.
Plans to redevelop the 18th century stable yards and part of the castle itself to house a whiskey micro-distillery and visitor centre would be called into question by a western route because, “it would be located a few hundred metres from this proposed enterprise”, he added.
It also emerged the possibility of creating a biodiversity park and education centre on the southern banks of the Boyne — which also runs through the Slane Castle estate — would end up as a “non-starter”, if a western route is selected.
The hearing also heard if the bypass was built it would be possible to replace the junction where the N2 meets the main Drogheda-Navan road in the centre of the medieval village with a roundabout which would be more in keeping with its heritage value.
The eastern route is closer to the Brú na Boinne World Heritage Site (WHS) which includes Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.
Earl Mountcharles said the eastern route is some 500 metres from the buffer zone to the WHS whereas the western route, “is less than 500 metres from the castle itself” and would amount to a “desecration of the castle and village”.
The An Bord Pleanála hearing is focusing on the proposed eastern route and continues today.
