Cairn Homes pressing ahead with €1.2bn Blarney development as permission sought for another 323 houses 

Lands at Ringwood and Stoneview                    where Cairn Homes Plc are embarking on a transformative €1.2bn, multi-phase development that will ultimately deliver upto 3,000 homes

Cairn Homes Plc is poised to lodge a second planning application to build an additional 323 homes at Ringwood in Blarney, as part of a €1.2bn multi-phase development that will transform the village.

Preparatory works are currently underway on 12 acres of land at Ringwood, where planning was granted late last year for 246 homes, under phase one of the scheme, which will ultimately deliver up to 3,000 houses.

The involvement of the country’s largest home builder is the result of a joint venture with local landowners Clare Forrest and family and Finbarr O’Leary of Rockfleet Joint Ventures Ltd – the latter two have worked for decades on site assembly, building up a 250a (101ha) landbank at Ringwood and Stoneview. 

The two sites flank the N20 and encircle the lands earmarked for the long-awaited Blarney Railway Station and proposed adjoining park and ride. The railway station is key to the transport-oriented development and a railway order to due to be submitted by the end of the year.

The phase two application – due to be lodged next week – is for a mix of 323 house types at Ringwood and a two-storey primary care centre, as well as the conversion of old farm buildings into pharmacy/retail and cafe/restaurant use. Consent is also sought for a new access road into the site, among other road changes, and for a new wetland public amenity area.

A new 40-acre municipal park – on land donated by the Forrest family - is also proposed for Ringwood (phase three), as well as a major new relief road, which will connect Blarney village to the planned Blarney rail station at Stoneview.

The ambitious development will be known as Forreston, albeit its similarity to the landowners’ surname is coincidental.