Where to live? Lucan or Leixlip?

Radioheader · 12-05-2014 1:32pm #1

Hi there,
My girlfriend and I are considering moving out to Leixlip/Lucan/Celbridge/Maynooth. Basically she works in Kildare/Westmeath, I work in Dublin city centre. So want to move somewhere with the following requirements:
Nice place to live - nice walks; nice pubs and restaurants
Easy commuting options into Dublin, particularly by train
Proximity to M4
House with a garden

Could someone recommend a town to live in, based on these requirements. Someone mentioned Laraghcon to me, others suggested Leixlip.

n97 mini · 12-05-2014 2:20pm

Lucan village has the most frequent bus service as all the 66s, the 67 and the 25 converge there, and the village centre itself is quite pleasant with nice pubs and so on. No train though. Access to the N4 is excellent.

Leixlip has two train stations, though neither are in the village centre. The town centre is very small and the layout of the town is not ideal as the main residential areas are some way away up hill. It has three bus routes, the 66 which starts in Maynooth, and the 66A and 66B which start in the residential parts of the town. Access to the M4 is excellent, from both sides of the town.

Lucan and Leixlip have good, regular, Nitelink services (66N and 25N).

Maynooth probably comes close to Lucan in a lot of ways, and has a train station. But it is that bit further out. The 66 and 67 start from Maynooth but it's 4 or 5 miles further out than say Leixlip, so the bus takes an age. Sligo trains stop in Maynooth and some go non-stop to Connolly, so that's a plus. Access to the M4 is via one exit, and depends on what end of the town you're on.

Celbridge I think is most poorly planned of them all, with the retail starting at English Row and going in a crooked line up as far as Lidl. Bus service is the 67 shared with Maynooth. Hazelhatch train service into Heuston compares very poorly in every way to the service Maynooth and Leixlip have into the city centre. Access to the M4 is a similar situation to Maynooth.

Maynooth and Celbridge share the 67N Nitelink sevice, which has large gaps.

In summary, Lucan has the best bus transport by far, and is the nicest village IMHO, but has no train service. Leixlip and Maynooth have very good transport, Maynooth has a better village centre, but is further out.

Radioheader · 12-05-2014 4:03pm

Thanks a million. I like Maynooth as a town, but just feel it is a little too far out. Lucan sounds pretty good to me given there are bus lanes out that road, and you could cycle to Clonsilla train station. I think your analysis has certainly ruled out Celbridge for me, and I am certainly more negative towards Leixlip now.

Food for thought anyhow. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

n97 mini · 12-05-2014 6:10pm

I live in Leixlip myself. If Lucan had a train station close to the village I would gladly live there, and rank it far higher than the other 3. None of them are perfect though, but for me Maynooth/Celbridge are a little too far out/disconnected.

Radioheader · 12-05-2014 7:59pm

Great advice, thanks for your help.

Salmon Leap · 12-05-2014 10:52pm

Leixlip resident too. No complaints, would recommend to anyone.

Copyerselveson · 13-05-2014 10:14am

I grew up in Leixlip, would recommend it! Good train links, good bus connections, especially late at night and well located on the M4.

A far cry from when I was a kid with no train, no motorway and one 66 bus every 45 minutes or so into town!

Oaklawn is well located near Louisa Bridge station and the bus stops on the old Maynooth road, as is Glen Easton and Louisa Valley, but I do have a soft spot for Oaklawn

Radioheader · 13-05-2014 1:39pm

Excellent, thanks for posting guys.

mrweatherman · 01-06-2014 8:36am

Em lucan does have a station its in adams town has its own line direct to heuston. It also depends on what part of lucan you want to live and if missus works in kildare im sure she could drop you off at the train station next to intel which runs in to oconnell station

doolox · 01-06-2014 9:12am

Lucan has a train service 2 miles south of the village in Adamstown which would be much more convenient than the narrow hilly roads from Lucan to Clonsilla. Straight, wide and level road all the way to the station at Adamstown but it is awkwardly situated away from any habitation and has no direct bus service to Lucan which it should have.
Lucans best bus service is the 66 and 67 which run into the village centre every 20 mins or so. Also 25 service from Dodsboro just south of the village every 40 minutes or so. Taxi at night to Lucan costs about €25. Taxi to Liffey Valley ctr is about €11 to €15
Lucan has a very good Demesne park for walks along the liffey valley, good library facilities at Newcastle Road, Athletics track and GAA centre ( Sarsfields) also on the Newcastle Road. Schools are excellent the Local St Thomas' and St Annes national often being the main selling point for houses in the area and the Lucan Community College is always heavily oversubscribed. No pool is a down side but ones available in Clondalkin (south) and Westmanstown (North) of Lucan.
Another downside is the heavy traffic on the Newcastle Road from 8am onwards esp during school runs and the general comedy in the village centre that forces through traffic over the only bridge across the Liffey between Leixlip and Chapelisod through a carpark, people having to wait for local traffic to park before making their way towards Blanchardstown etc. This is always congested except on Sundays during Bank Holidays and can take 1/2 hr to get through. Laraghcon is badly affected by this, being in the Fingal county area but the access roads serving it and the traffic on them are in South Dublin county area, my suspicion is that the two county traffic managers do not consult with each other very much.
Another big downside is the level of service and access to the Local Banks which can take an 1hr to get anything requiring a person done. I do all my banking elsewhere as it is just so bad. The Post Office in Dodsboro is also glacial and the staff have a bad attitude reminiscent of the bad old days of public service monopolies. Avoid it on Tuesdays and Fridays as SW queues are long, slow and problematical.
Pubs are good and there are food services in most and also plenty of takeways, Chinese, Italian etc.

n97 mini · 01-06-2014 11:34am

doolox wrote: »

Lucan has a train service 2 miles south of the village ... but it is awkwardly situated away from any habitation and has no direct bus service to Lucan which it should have.

Ironically you can get a bus to either of Leixlip's stations from Lucan village, but not to Adamstown station.

Where to live? Lucan or Leixlip?

Comments