Advice on Newtownmountkennedy

EgonSpengler

Evening all,

We're house hunting outside of the pale to upgrade from our tiny Dublin apartment to a proper family home and we've seen a couple of really great properties in Newtown. However, we know little about the village at all. I've done a search on Boards and it's all a bit negative, but they were from 2006 and 2008.

Can anyone HONESTLY advise us how it is there now? Houses we've seen are in O'Neill Park and Season Park. Worth the move with the better half and the little fella?

Thanks in advance...
Egon

The_Conductor

Egon- do you work in the area- or would you have to commute.
First and foremost- this would be the question I'd be asking.
I worked in Newtownmountkennedy for a while (I was a forester in a previous existence)- while I have nothing against the place- the commute was tedious- and I have young children too now- so I really couldn't justify it on that ground alone- wholly aside from anything else........

EgonSpengler

One of us stays at home with the baby, so that's no problem - I have a business in Dublin but the idea would be to work at home at least one day a week. There's workspace in both houses, so it's doable and means only commuting for four days a week. And it'll be early starts / late finishes so hopefully outside of the worst of rush hour.

Any advice on the village itself?

loyatemu

Might be best to ask on the Wicklow or Greystones/Charlesland boards (Under Region>East). Newtown used to have a reputation for being a bit rough & ready, but I think it has improved in recent years.

Commuting you can get the DART from Greystones or the Bus Eireann service direct from Newtown. Driving the traffic on the N11 is very heavy at rush hour.

EgonSpengler

Thanks for that - I'll post in the other forum too. Cheers for the heads up...

Uno my Uno.

I lived nearby for a while several years ago, my neighbour used to refer to Newtowners as "the Barbarians from Without the walls." He was kidding but there were some rougher elements up there. He told me that all the Pubs In Newtown had been closed for several years because the locals kept smashing them up. I don't know if that was true exactly or an exaggeration but he had lived in the area for nearly 40 years so he new the town well. I recall that one of the pubs had reopened at that time.

We had friends living in the village and used to visit them regularly, my own take on it was that at the north end it was a very pleasant little town where as at the south end it was much less pleasant and even a little unsavory. That might be unfair, it was just my impression.
.
the other thing that was striking was the complete lack of facilities, one pub, no restaurants, a post office and a second small shop were all I could see, they built the hotel in the town at that time but no one really knew who was going to stay in it or if it would even open fully. Its been a while since I was there so there may be more facilities in the town now.

I would think that living in Newtown would be a very rural life, you'd need to drive everywhere and the people in the area are rural in their outlook. If you enjoy living an urban lifestyle you might find it a struggle. Isolation could be an issue especially if one of you is planning to stay home with a baby, going places or meeting up with friends won't be as easy as it is in the city.

The last thing I would say is that the Kilcoole-Newtown-Newcastle triangle and surrounds is beautiful and appears idyllic but is technically classified as an economically deprived area. That doesn't reflect on the people living there but it does mean that the area suffers from a lack of resources and facilities and sometimes that is apparent. I did experience some minor crime while living in the area but it wouldn't put me off living there.

In the end I moved back to Dublin for several reasons but isolation was a major part of it, its not a long distance but good luck getting people to come out to visit very often. I got fed up of driving in and out of Town every time I wanted to see someone or do something other than stay in and watch TV. I call it my year in the country now, I enjoyed it but was glad to move back to the city.

RosieJoe

Complete lack of facilities? It has 2 pubs, one of which (The Mountkennedy Inn) serves great food, a Hotel, with a bar that servers food & a restaurant. It has a large Dunnes, a very good butchers, 3 newsagents, one of which has another butchers and one that has the Post Office. There is a choice of chinese/indian/chipper takeaways. Then there is Fishers and a Credit Union. Plus a florist, mechanics, beauticians etc.

There is also Newtown GAA, Newtown United FC, Baton Twirlers, East Coast Tae kwon do, Cummunity Groups, Drama Society.

I've probably left out some too.

Uno my Uno.

RosieJoe wrote: »

Complete lack of facilities? It has 2 pubs, one of which (The Mountkennedy Inn) serves great food, a Hotel, with a bar that servers food & a restaurant. It has a large Dunnes, a very good butchers, 3 newsagents, one of which has another butchers and one that has the Post Office. There is a choice of chinese/indian/chipper takeaways. Then there is Fishers and a Credit Union. Plus a florist, mechanics, beauticians etc.

There is also Newtown GAA, Newtown United FC, Baton Twirlers, East Coast Tae kwon do, Cummunity Groups, Drama Society.

I've probably left out some too.

Fair enough, it has been quite a while since I was there. You'd only really become aware of things like community groups if you lived in the area or actively looked for them.

EgonSpengler

We're quite isolated where we are in Dublin at the moment - there's a Spar in the area, but no pubs and restaurants. You'd have to drive to get anywhere like that, but it does sound as though Newtownmountkennedy might have more going for it than our South County Dublin suburb! At least a pub / coffee shop / Dunnes is a massive improvement on what we have now.

Anyone have any experience in the two areas of property that we're looking at?

RosieJoe

PM'd you there