Lord lays siege to Dromoland Castle’s plan to build new water source

A disagreement has emerged between Dromoland Castle and Lord Inchiquin, the direct descendant of Brian Boru, over plans to construct a new water source to serve the 180-year-old castle.

Lord Inchiquin Conor O’Brien has lodged an objection with An Bord Pleanála against the proposed construction of three bore wells, an underground storage tank, and a water pump house on the grounds of the historic castle.

Lord Inchiquin is the head of the O’Brien Clan, which has owned large tracks of land around Dromoland for more than 500 years. Indeed the previous Lord Inchiquin, Donough O’Brien, sold Dromoland Castle and 350 acres of land to American, Bernard McDonough, in 1962.

The current Lord Inchiquin still owns a sizeable land holding in the area and has objected to this proposal on the grounds that the planning application is invalid and will have an impact on his property.

Despite these objections, as well as reports from groups such as An Taisce and the Department of the Environment, the development has been given the green light by Clare County Council.

In his objection lodged to planners at Clare County Council, Lord Inchiquin argued that the planning permission was invalid on a number of grounds — including that the underground water which would be extracted for the bore wells forms part of his land.

“The location of the borehole is misconceived, being located where manifestly vulnerable to the farm activities on my adjacent land and in particular, the fertilising of those lands and the spraying of slurry,” said Lord Inchiquin in his submission to Clare County Council.

“The proposed water supply development is ill-conceived and inappropriate, and, without prejudice to the invalidity of this application, is in contrary to the interests of proper planning and development in this area. I request that the application [Dromoland Castle Ltd] be informed of the invalidity of the application.”

In its report to Clare County Council, an Taisce raised a number of possible concerns including the risk of the water source being polluted by slurry and wastewater, and that local flooding could also threaten the water supply, if it is constructed.

Planning permission for the development was granted by Clare County Council in October subject to nine conditions including that measures be taken to protect the pollution of the local groundwater. A final decision is not expected from An Bord Pleanála until March of next year.