proposed €19m tourist development of the HellFire Club

Not being up in Dublin much these days I've only got to hear of this development recently and I just can't understand it. Why does everything have to be interpreted, have massive car parks, and somewhere to buy tea and pee? How did we manage before?

There's no doubt that the Hell Fire Club building could do with a makeover but this... I heard an FF Councillor (?) on RTE this morning and the best he could come up with was 'there's nowhere to get a cup of coffee' . :rolleyes:

How about we leave the countryside unspoilt for those who respect and enjoy it and the rest of the hoi polloi can go to Tayto Park or the Costa whatever - we'll all be happier then. As for the tourists, from my long experience of dealing with them first hand I find they aren't interested in being herded into these centres - as for treetop walkways.

Instead of wasting millions wrecking the Dublin Mountains the money would be better spent on social housing and if there's anything left, the 'so-called' bird sanctuary at Booterstown could do with an interpretative centre/bird hide and a proper management plan for the place sorted out.

Is this really the best use for €19m (or €15m as was said yesterday on the radio)? We're still in a homeless crisis, and we're spending €15m on a cafe in the mountains?

€19m won't fix the housing problem. It's not a money problem.

seamus wrote: »

€19m won't fix the housing problem. It's not a money problem.

So it's okay to squander the money on this nonsense? We had one of these all singing, all dancing Int.Centres here - opened in 1998 and closing this summer with the premises flogged on the quiet to some businessman.

http://www.southeastradio.ie/2017/05/1798-centre-in-enniscorthy-to-close-after-nearly-20-years/

Here's another wonderful Int.Centre - The Corlea Trackway - which attracts virtually nobody and cost several million. it was one of CJ Haughey's wet dreams.



http://www.longfordtourism.ie/see-do/attractions/corlea-trackway-visitor-centre/

It attracted a massive 5,331 visitors in 2015!
http://www.opw.ie/en/pressreleases/2016/articleheading,36092,en.html

Tabnabs wrote: »

New visuals for the proposed project have been released

As with the Lexicon in Dun Laoghaire, the CGI impressions aren't doing the proposal for the Hellfire Club any favors. Prior to when the Lexicon was being build, I was completely opposed to it. This is mainly because the CGI replica made it look more like the Irish Fisheries Board building (which is an absolute eyesore) and less like the impressive feat it has transpired to be. The actual buildings proposed for the Hellfire could do with being less boxy as they end up looking quite clinical in nature.

The tree top walk way is a very welcome part of this plan as it provides a unique experience to those visiting. I see a lot of the usual objections on the grounds of it being man-made. If that's the case, why is there a roadway i.e. the Old Military Road slicing through the nearby Sally Gap? After all, that is also man-made.

Next, there are the objections the cafe which is absolutely ridiculous. I doubt that there would be as many people visiting Powerscourt Garden Center if there wasn't a cafe and it was left to become dilapidated without landscaping and other reinvigorating measures.

The whole point of broadening the purpose and function of the landmark is to attract more people to it. Unlike some of the failed example provided in this thread, the Hellfire Club has the advantage of being right next to the capital and one of Dublins most heavily populated postal districts, Dublin 24.

Then again, many of the crusties won't stop until nature has completely reclaimed what man has built!

ted1 wrote: »

Why is there a need to attract more people to it?

Why not?

If there is untapped potential in a place, it should be exploited.

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And the important parts will remain undeveloped.

Surely you're not saying that a car park and 200m of forest trail leading up from it are the things that bring you the Hellfire?

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

Why does every bit of tax payer's money have to go to the "housing crisis"?

To be fair sometimes its hospitals that everyone shouts about or whatever is in the news that day

ted1 wrote: »

Budgets allocate funding over different areas, you can pump 100% of the budget into housing , that's just daft and totally unfair to tax payers. The homeless get enough of a % off-the-budget.

That has little to do with Dublin County Council wasting money and destroying a location such as the Hell Fire club; leave the wild areas of Ireland wild, look after them and the visitors will come.

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Care to explain what part doesn't make sense?

You go to the hill for a hilly forest walk, to visit an old ruin and take in views of the surrounding area. The old ruin, the views, and the majority of the forest walk, will be completely untouched by this proposal.

So what exactly is it that you fear?

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Right, we've been over it then. It's just NIMBYism. You oppose any kind of development, "unspoiled", "commercialising everything", "I like it as it is", and so forth, rather than having any sound rational basis for why this would be a bad thing.

The "attraction" will be untouched, access to it will be improved and additional local amenities created. The cost is €19m and a small amount of unremarkable man-made trails and forests being altered.

I don't see the problem.