Grannagh castle

wanderer 22

I went to visit today - how can such a beautiful site be closed to the public? Also how did the house here get planning permission??

CardBordWindow

The house has been there years. My grandad had an old painting looking down the road towards the castle and the house was visible. It was a thatched cottage.

The owners tried to renovate it and re-roofed it approx 25 years ago without planning permission and had to stop as they had replaced the thatched roof with tiles. When it was finally done up a few years ago they had to preserve the gable end is all, as far as I remember.

Regarding access to the castle, the OPW owns the land inside the castle, and something like 3 metres around the castle (I am open to correction on this) but the rest of the land is privately owned, including where the old access point was. A combination of insurance and not wanting people trespassing in front of the renovated house meant the owner closed off access. I was chatting to the land owner last summer and he said that he has been in contact with the OPW about changing access to the far side, and gave them permission to create an entrance. However this has been ongoing for more than 20 years!

If you are in the area during the summer, you may see the land owner cutting the grass in the area. He maintains the grass around the castle and nearby picnic area most weekends. If you ask him, he will let you in to walk around the castle grounds.

wanderer 22

Great Info, thanks for that.