From Glastonbury to Adare: helicopter guests and 360-bed tent village planned for Ryder Cup
A glamping development is planned for Adare village for the Ryder Cup competition in 2027.
A luxury tented village for 360 guests, served by helicopter and chauffeur arrivals, is planned for the pitch-and-putt club in Adare for next year's Ryder Cup.
The application comes days after Limerick City and County Council refused a rival glamping scheme nearby.
Ronald Baker has applied for one-year temporary permission on nine hectares at Adare Pitch & Putt Club and adjoining fields on Killarney Road, about 1km from Adare Manor, where the competition takes place next September.
The plans include 180 guest tents for 360 people and 30 staff tents for 90 people. There would also be 20 catering and guest-services tents, six catering vehicles, 10 toilet and shower units, generators, water and wastewater tanks, a car park and a staff campervan area.
According to the planning documents, the camp would be operated by Camp Kerala, the UK operator known for its luxury tented camp at Glastonbury. Its tents feature king-size beds and sheepskin rugs, with the option of an en-suite toilet and shower. At the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where it has also partnered, packages started from £6,250 per person. The planning documents do not say what guests at Adare would pay.
The application argues that the development will generate little extra traffic. According to the planning report, prepared by Hughes Planning and Development Consultants, "guests will arrive via helicopter and chauffeur" and will take shuttle buses to and from the course.
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The northern part of the site, around the existing clubhouse, would hold a main marquee and reception tent, food and beverage vans, and "pamper and beauty rooms". A staff village with catering and lounge areas would sit in the middle of the site. A field to the south, reached from the R519, would be available for car parking, subject to the event's traffic management plan.
They said set-up would begin four weeks before the tournament, which runs from September 13 to 19. The camp would operate for about 10 days and be removed within two weeks. The applicant is seeking a year's permission to leave time for any request for further information from the council.
The report says Adare has an estimated 400 to 500 rooms across its hotels, hostels and B&Bs, against expected attendance of around 250,000.
The application lands a week after Limerick City and County Council refused permission for Pamper the Camper Ltd's proposal for 278 temporary accommodation units across sites at Graigue and Cummeen, at the junction of the N21 and R519 roads.
The council gave six reasons for refusal. It said that development posed risks to pedestrian and traffic safety, could affect the Lower River Shannon and archaeological heritage, and would harm neighbouring homes through odour, lighting and disturbance. It was also not satisfied with the information provided on water supply and wastewater management.
The pitch and putt course opened in 1990.
The lands are also the subject of a separate application, lodged earlier this month by Homeland Projects Ltd, for 68 homes on the site. That development is still being assessed by Council planners and is made up of 62 houses and two triplex blocks. Homeland has written in support of the glamping scheme. It confirms that if it gets permission, no construction of the residential development will start until the Ryder Cup is over, the glamping use has ended, and the lands are returned to the landowner.
The application is the latest in a series of temporary accommodation and transport plans for the tournament.
The official campsite, in the Mountwilliam area of Adare, will be operated by Pink Moon, the company behind camping at Electric Picnic. Average prices are €151 per person per night for a seven-night stay and €176 for a five-night stay, and between 6,000 and 7,000 people are expected to use it each day of Ryder Cup week.
Ryder Cup Travel Services, the official travel provider, is also selling packages on the Oceania Marina, a five-star cruise ship docked in the Shannon Estuary, with daily transfers to Adare Manor. Earlier this year, permission was granted for 10 self-catering lodges within the grounds of Adare Manor.
On transport, Limerick Council has sought approval for a temporary park-and-ride with more than 3,900 spaces at Collopy's Cross, Attyflin, Patrickswell. Construction also began in May on a €3m temporary train station at Adare, funded by the Department of Transport through the National Transport Authority. It will run shuttles on the reinstated Foynes line between Adare and Limerick Junction, meeting trains from Dublin and Cork. The council has also said the Adare bypass is due in June 2027.
A planning decision on the pitch and putt application is due in mid-November.
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