Mountcharles: Slane concerts at risk from bypass

ROCK concerts at Slane Castle — which has attracted international icons such as U2, the Rolling Stones and this year it will host Kings of Leon — would be “seriously threatened” if the bypass of Slane is built to the west of the village.

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.