Maynooth- names of family orientated/residential estates?

Pixied

Hi

My sis is looking to move to Maynooth with her husband and baby.

They are looking for a family-friendly estate where their child will be able to socialise with other kids. (Rather then a largely student based estate -nothing against the students, I went there myself!!)

Also do you think all the estates eventually end up being taken over by students or do some residential/family areas manage to remain just that?

Is it a good place to rear a family?

Thanks!!

M5

Hi there,

Students are everywhere here. Most of the older estates would be more family based though. Im in one of the newer ones and theres hardly a child to be seen or heard....

I have liked here for 8 years so know the place reasonably well, if you have any q's shoot,

M5

MayMay

Parklands and Castlebridge on the Straffan Road are very family orientated. Over on the other side Parson Hall is all family from what I can see. Castledawson mainly family too. And Rockfield would be another one. Plenty more but they're the ones I know well.

Varkov

I was living up in Moyglare Abbey for the last six months, and on my road alone there seemed to be about two dozen kids running around from 9 in the morning till 9 at night. A few student houses dotted around the estate, but you'll find that everywhere in Maynooth.

abitlonely

Varkov wrote: »

I was living up in Moyglare Abbey for the last six months, and on my road alone there seemed to be about two dozen kids running around from 9 in the morning till 9 at night.

Moyglare in general seems to be pretty family oriented.
I'd agree with MayMay on the 4 above, not knowing Parson Hall (surely a good sign!).
Kingsbury, Meadowbrook and Beaufield are popular with students.

daviddwyer

Moyglare Hall, village or abbey are great. Rockbridge and SilkenVale great for kids too!!

Varkov

daviddwyer wrote: »

Moyglare Hall, village or abbey are great

Not if you'r trying to sleep in on a Sunday afternoon! Damn Kids! :mad:

Pixied

Cheers everyone, thats a great help for her!!

Just another thing too, if that's ok.

What are the specific things/activities that make it a good place to bring up kids?

What are the schools like?

Is there much for parents themselves to do? ie clubs/societies/sports/pubs -anything??

Thanks again
P

Varkov

Well, with Moyglare theres a primary and secondary school just down the road, and theres plenty of speedbumps and big greens dotted around the estate.

Me and a friend were asked to help out with judging a football tournament the parents had set up for the kids, so there seems to be a decent sense of comunity around the place. And we got a bottle of vodka for our trouble

Orion

I'm in Silkenvale myself - there's plenty of kids around and it's a nice enclosed estate so it's safe. There are some students around but not that many - it's mainly owner-occupied. Across the road is Parklands which seems very child friendly too. My kids go to a creche there.

As for schools there are the national schools on the Moyglare road, the Gaelscoil on the Celbridge road and <blatant plug> a new Educate Together school on the Celbridge Road also.

Pixied

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the help!

Just to play devils advocate for my sis, does anyone find any drawbacks to living or/and bringing up a family in Maynooth?

For example any safety issues, schools overcrowded ect..

Thanks a mill again.

Orion

I've been here nearly 8 years. My twins are now 5. As a childless couple we loved living here. As parents it's just as good. That's my experience anyway. My estate is quiet with plenty of kids around - our house becomes a bit of a neighbour kid playground at the weekends . There's a good playground in Harbour Field. It's central for children's activities - the zoo is 25 mins away, Playzone in Celbridge (10 mins), Lullymore is 30 mins away, cinemas in Blanch and Liffey Valley, NRG in Newcastle is 20 mins also.

As for schools - my two just started this year in the ET school which only opened this month (I'm on the startup committee). Class sizes are small in it this year but it's looking like it'll be national average class sizes in future years based on pre-enrolments. The boys and girls NS are fairly crowded afaik but no more than any other town. The ET school will be just as crowded in future years. I've not heard of any child in Maynooth not being able to get a school place locally. There's also a Gaelscoil in town if she's interested in education through Irish.

This bit is not a recruitment drive - if your sis is planning on moving here I'd suggest pre-enrolling the child now - you don't say what age the child is. In the ET school go to www.maynoothet.org and download the pre-enrolment form and post it to us now. For the boys and girls NS you can't enrol until you're living in the area afaik so if she moves here enrol immediately in one of them if that's her preference.

Regarding safety - there is crime, you can't avoid it. There was a car nearly robbed on my road last month - an old piece of crap ... even I could have hotwired it . And there is the odd burglary. But the crime rate is low for a town this size - you don't hear much about it. Much more importantly to me I feel my kids are safe. I'm quite happy to let them out in our area without fear. Us and the other kid's parents are always keeping an eye out.

There's also a good community feel around the area. Maynooth has become quite built up and is a satellite town now but has kept it's country town community spirit about it and that's what I really like about it.

Pixied

Great! Thanks so much Macros42 and everyone, she's delighted with all the info.

Just one final thing, she's currently paying €1260 a month (:eek:) for her 16 month old in a creche in Dublin. Would she be looking at paying similar in a creche around maynooth? She's hoping this will go down.

Thanks again everyone :):)

Orion

The creche we're in is 352 a week for twins - think it's 180pw for single kids. That equates to under 800pm (annualised). And that's fairly standard for the area as far as I'm aware. There are also 2 private bus services which pick up kids from school and bring them to the creche in the afternoon. They also do creche to school runs if the school opens too late for you to drop them yourself.

Pixied

My god! That is some differance :eek:. She will be relieved to hear that. And the other services are great too. I'm delighted for her.

Cheers again Macros42..much appreciated

Orion

no probs at all. Give me a shout in pm or on this thread if you need any more info.

Pixied

Just a quick update..

My sis and I were out in Maynooth last saturday looking at the various estates. Some of the estates were really lovely and looked friendly, and of there still seems to be housing selling there despite the downturn.

Two small things did come up:
1) The traffic was quite bad, even getting in and out of estates. We thought the new motorway would have eased a lot of the traffic problems that I remember from my time there.
Is there always heavy traffic or was it just a saturday thing with everyone being home?

2) My sis liked the estates around the station and we saw some clamping signs up. Is there much of a problem with commuters parking in estates?

cheers again!
P

Orion

The clamping sign you saw was probably in my estate - Silkenvale. There used to be a problem - cars parked both sides of the main road through the estate making the corners dangerous. All-Ireland days you get some cars parking there but it's tolerated on those Sundays. Apart from that it's grand normally.

As for traffic - it can get quite busy at certain times of the day but there's a new road due to open linking north Maynooth with the M4 which will take away lots of that traffic.

lol5605

Main reason for the traffic atm is the lights at SuperValue, they put them up a good while back, they caused stupids amount of traffic so they switched them off within two weeks, now there back on and same problem again. About 10 years ago there was 1 set of lights in the town.

Orion

and I'll bet they'll be off again. I've spoken to management in SuperValu - they've been told by more than me that people will stop shopping there again due to the lights. There's never a problem getting out of the Glenroyal - then they put lights in and you queue to get out - typical. ofc the excuse this time from the council is that there's a need for pedestrian lights. That now makes 4 sets of pedestrian lights in 150yds - where's the need for the 4th set exactly?

btw - they didn't just switch them off two years ago - they removed them completely. Then replaced them this year - good spending there :rolleyes:

M5

Macros42 wrote: »

and I'll bet they'll be off again. I've spoken to management in SuperValu - they've been told by more than me that people will stop shopping there again due to the lights. There's never a problem getting out of the Glenroyal - then they put lights in and you queue to get out - typical. ofc the excuse this time from the council is that there's a need for pedestrian lights. That now makes 4 sets of pedestrian lights in 150yds - where's the need for the 4th set exactly?

btw - they didn't just switch them off two years ago - they removed them completely. Then replaced them this year - good spending there :rolleyes:

Dont think they wil be going this time. Have you seen all the cameras going up around the village, they are part of a traffic managment system put in place as part of the planning for the new tescos. Once this comes on line there should be some synchronisation of the lights.

Yesterday i was in a jam heading twoards the motorway at bradys, red lights at the glenroyal, one car turned left, jam of 50+ waiting, stupid system.

Also dont get why they put lights at lidl but none at the new road junction, I use that every day and turning right can be an absolute disaster.

Also I heard a roumer that there was a plan for a road joining the road at lidl with the other side of the town (at tescos), anyone else hear about this? Cant see how this would work...

Pixied

Thanks again everyone .

Looks like the traffic is an all-round issue at the mo. I tried to find info online regarding the outer relief road from the Moyglare side but couldn't find anything. Has anybody any news on the timeline on this?

The new Tesco/Carton Retail Park sounds like it is going to be huge-surely they must have made some provision for easing the traffic?

Orion

The Moyglare relief road is going right by the Tesco monstrosity. The majority of the traffic going to it will not be going up the main street.

I'm not sure of the timeline but I as I mentioned I was involved in setting up of a new primary school and part of the planners report for the school was that the road is due to open in the next 12 months. How accurate that is I don't know.

M5

Pixied wrote: »

Thanks again everyone .

Looks like the traffic is an all-round issue at the mo. I tried to find info online regarding the outer relief road from the Moyglare side but couldn't find anything. Has anybody any news on the timeline on this?

The new Tesco/Carton Retail Park sounds like it is going to be huge-surely they must have made some provision for easing the traffic?

To be fair traffic is grand in Maynooth except form 4-6 weekdays and whenever a "portajam" turns up :-P, your talking max 10/15 mins across town even then

FibbersON

On the family friendly estate question I moved into Castle Dawson a few months back, I think I'm the only single person in the whole estate!! All my firends think it is the most family friendly estate they've seen. Also because of the new road linking to the Motorway traffic is rarely an issue for me.

I've a sister in Rockfield which is very family orientated too.