No blarney: €1bn masterplan for 2,500 homes at Blarney village over the next decade

Larger site assembled at Blarney's  Ringwood and Stoneview will be served by Park and Ride rail station

Combined Blarney sites at  Ringwood and Stoneview total 255 acres, capable of taking over 2,500 new homes. Total value could reach €1bn over the next decade.

PLANNING permission for the first stage of a possible 2,500-plus unit housing masterplan for world-renowned Blarney village is about to be lodged with Cork City Council,  on lands between the village and the N20 and planned commuter railway station.

The scheme, likely to proceed over a 10-year time span and in phases to include a 40-acre town park, may have a value of up to €1bn when complete: it’s being proposed for zoned farm lands at Ringwood, and the joint venture development includes landowners the Forrest family, who have farmed on the edge of Blarney village for more than 200 years.

Blarney Castle

Involved in the significant scheme in one of seven identified strategic growth centres for the greater Cork area are Cork-born former solicitor and venture capitalist Finbarr O’Leary of Rock Fleet Group, and Elkstone Capital Partners.

Mr O’Leary and Elkstone paid €7m to Nama for 105 acres at the adjacent Stoneview site on the other side of the N20 two years ago, next to the Blarney Business Park, with the area publicly identified over 20 years ago for strategic development given the rail line access at Station Road and scope for a commuter rail service, currently being progressed by Irish Rail.

Phase one is close to the village of Blarney

Combined, the Ringwood lands owned by the Forrest family, and Stoneview, come to 255 acres and the plans for more than 2,500 new homes on the combined site over the coming years makes it one of the largest planning applications to come before Cork City Council in recent times, notes Mr O’Leary.

Stoneview lands of 105 acres were sold for Nama for €7m

The two combined sites “effectively flank the N20, and encircle the lands earmarked for the planned (revived) Blarney Railway Station and the site for the proposed Park and Ride facility which will be adjacent to the Railway Station itself”.

Mr O’Leary says the Elkstone Capital Project proposal was for a ‘concentric’ development for Blarney, as favoured by planners, working from the village side out.

The Ringwood lands are within 1.5kms of the village square, with the 15th century castle beyond. Previous plans for Stoneview envisaged a right of way through the land at Ringwood: this unites both in a more cohesive way, say the developers and will in time include a new bridge over the N20 Cork-Limerick/Mallow road, serving as a secondary route of access for Blarney.

A long time coming: this was a masterplan for Stoneview back in 2006.

The phased scheme will include a 40-acre town park to preserve open views close to the village and castle, and the layout is designed not to impinge on views to and from and castle. The masterplan will allow for other associated uses, some retail, lands for schools, creches, etc, and linkages to the Park and Ride rail station on the main Cork-Dublin line.

Blarney is earmarked for a funded rail station, part of the Cork Area Commuter Rail Programme, linking to the city, Midelton and Cobh.

Proposed in the first phase for the lands which are zoned in the Cork City development Plan 2022-2028 are 500 new two-, three- and four-bed homes across a range of house types and sizes, and available to first-time buyers, including social and affordable units.

Densities suggested are 35-40 to the hectare, with heights generally two and three storeys. Design teams include Dublin-based urban design plan architects Conroy Crowe Kelly; Landscape Designers Cunnane Stratten Reynolds;, MHL Consulting Engineers; planning consultants Coakley O’Neill; transport consultants Systra, and project co-ordinator, is Alex Walsh, of Elkstone Capital Partners who are providing project finance.

Elkstone are active on a number of funding/development and investment fronts, including in the health and nursing home sectors, and are understood to have been underbidders on the €20m+ sale of Douglas Village Shopping Centre.

Spearheading the project, Finbarr O’Leary notes that their assembled lands “have been identified as one of seven strategic areas within the Cork City Region, earmarked for compact consolidation and expansion according to the Cork City Development Plan 2022–2028”.

“Blarney, which became a suburb of Cork city  following the boundary extension in 2019, is set to play a key role in the growth of the city as noted in the National Planning Framework which has set a population growth target of at least 50- 60% for Cork City and its suburbs by 2040,” he adds.