Castletown Going Downhill ?

2011abc

Depressing to see this turn into a money pit for the greedy eg Lego exhibition with ridiculous entry fees , a ludicrous 'club' giving access to some very basic playground etc and as for the cafe ...standards steadily slipping if not in free fall .Skimping on Quality of ingredients , service ( and clearly staff pay /conditions ) etc .Not good !Why do people think they can come in and give less for more and think they can get away with it?

scarbouro

Totally agree. The playground is dismal to say the least. My daughter was bored after 5 minutes. The entry fee is ridiculous and I certainly won't be returning. They could do so much more with the grounds. The Cafe is a joke and the service is shocking. Any time we have been, you're waiting ages for someone to take your order.

Spanish Eyes

What's going on?

I take it that it is still free to walk the avenue and go to the coffee shop place?

Other than that it doesn't bother me. If people have an issue with it go elsewhere, they will soon get the message and backtrack. But the school hols are nearly over now, so back to base I'd say.

It is a lovely walk up there, those who live in the vicinity are very lucky indeed.

I went to the Antiques Fair there some time ago and it was great. Band playing in the courtyard, great atmosphere. And no entry fee either.

scarbouro

Yes, still free to walk the avenue. They're charging €6 for an adult and €3 for a child to go into an area off the Cafe courtyard that has a swing, slide and see saw. Also a Lego exhibition. Works out quite expensive if you have a few children. You can't let the children in by themselves so you have to pay the adult fee. Works out very expensive for what it is.

mloc123

scarbouro wrote: »

Yes, still free to walk the avenue. They're charging €6 for an adult and €3 for a child to go into an area off the Cafe courtyard that has a swing, slide and see saw. Also a Lego exhibition. Works out quite expensive if you have a few children. You can't let the children in by themselves so you have to pay the adult fee. Works out very expensive for what it is.

It is optional of course...

Castletown is great. Miles of trails both along the river as well as through the woods behind the house to run/walk/cycle on. The lake with its ducks and swans to feed. Open spaces for kids to play and families to have picnics etc.. etc..

It is a free amenity which is used by people from Celbridge and Leixlip. I don't begrudge the OPW charging people into exhibitions, events etc.. considering the amount of work that they have carried out on the grounds in the past 10 years.

The cafe is run by an external company who I assume lease the premises from OPW. You can find them here (thecaterers.ie) to direct any complaints.

daheff

mloc123 wrote: »

It is a free amenity which is used by people from Celbridge and Leixlip. I don't begrudge the OPW charging people into exhibitions, events etc.. considering the amount of work that they have carried out on the grounds in the past 10 years.

Have you seen the playground? Its an insult to charge 3eur for a child...not to mind charge for adults.

whatever about the Lego exhibition included, the price is beyond reasonable.

Its long been suspected by residents that OPW are trying to reduce access to the grounds completely. there have been a number of protests over attempts to reduce access.

mloc123

daheff wrote: »

Have you seen the playground? Its an insult to charge 3eur for a child...not to mind charge for adults.

whatever about the Lego exhibition included, the price is beyond reasonable.

Its long been suspected by residents that OPW are trying to reduce access to the grounds completely. there have been a number of protests over attempts to reduce access.

No.. I would not pay to go to a playground with my child... there are two playgrounds that are free in Celbridge along with one in Leixlip and Maynooth.
Like I said... it is optional to pay into those events.

As for the fears they will completely remove access to the grounds... what is that based on and what would be the purpose? This stems from the fact that they now lock the gates after dark.

Riskymove

daheff wrote: »

Its long been suspected by residents that OPW are trying to reduce access to the grounds completely.

??

how exactly?


by providing:

a cafe
tours
markets and craft fairs
car parking
safe walking on avenue by removing cars
improved walking routes


yes, definitely trying to get rid of people!

Davidth88

Why would you pay to go into that silly playground when there is a HUGE natural playground for free..... trees to climb.... rivers to paddle in .... hills to roll down ......

We did pay to get into the Lego thingie which my kids enjoyed hugely ... but before that my kids took one look at the playground through the fence and went... meh.

The cafe I rarely use but I think is almost a victim of it's own success.

As a resident of celbridge I thank my lucky stars that we have Castletown as an amenity... it's wonderful and makes up for the fact that our county council chose to ignore north kildare except to collect money.

daheff

mloc123 wrote: »

As for the fears they will completely remove access to the grounds... what is that based on and what would be the purpose? This stems from the fact that they now lock the gates after dark.

Riskymove wrote: »

??

how exactly?


by providing:

a cafe
tours
markets and craft fairs
car parking
safe walking on avenue by removing cars
improved walking routes


yes, definitely trying to get rid of people!

The key word in my post was REDUCE -not remove. OPW have tried to reduce right of way on the grounds that has been there for a long time. They also wanted to do something to restrict access for dog walkers too. Both issues had locals marching about it and OPW backed down.


that said - they have made some progress in making parts of the land more accessible (eg walkway through the front meadow to the river, along the duck pond etc) and opened the house up for markets. They could do a hell of a lot more though -compare Castletown house to some of the properties that are in Dublin (eg Newbridge house) and you can see that quite a lot more could be done to make a good amenity be a fantastic one.

mloc123

daheff wrote: »

The key word in my post was REDUCE -not remove. OPW have tried to reduce right of way on the grounds that has been there for a long time. They also wanted to do something to restrict access for dog walkers too. Both issues had locals marching about it and OPW backed down.


that said - they have made some progress in making parts of the land more accessible (eg walkway through the front meadow to the river, along the duck pond etc) and opened the house up for markets. They could do a hell of a lot more though -compare Castletown house to some of the properties that are in Dublin (eg Newbridge house) and you can see that quite a lot more could be done to make a good amenity be a fantastic one.

And they could do a lot less too...

To say that Castletown is going downhill is unfair. I would like to see stats on the number of people that use it for walking, running, cycling etc.. compared to 10 years ago. They are making steady progress overall making it an area for everyone to enjoy.

Joe Public

Castletown is a great amenity to have at our doorstep and is improving all the time and frequented by many local people and visitors alike.

OPW got "burnt" before when providing outdoor furniture such as picnic tables. Late night/early morning antisocial activity saw the demise of the picnic tables as they were set on fire a few times. Also fires in the woods are common place, some trees along the river were burnt out. When hay was baled a few years ago they set fire to some of bales. The Gardai were called one night due to something going on in the woods and the Garda car was burnt out. Wheelie bins are regularly rounded up and set fire to in the woods. Windows in Castletown House have been smashed late at night. This is just a short list but I don't want to make things sound like it's a war zone as it's not but these things have happened in the past and some continue. Drinking in the woods is ongoing but doesn't bother too many people except for the rubbish left behind.

It's no surprise that OPW had to do something to curb the antisocial behaviour and restrictions on opening/closing times had to be brought in. Another reason for limiting access is to do with insurance as there have been cases where injury claims have been made as result of accidents late at night.

The playground has to start small so they can get an idea of interest and whether it's out of the reach of late night vandals. I'm not in favour of adults having to pay in as you can't just let young children off on their own to use the playground.