Buying in Lucan - Opinions on these two properties

I live in a different part of Lucan but both of these are nice locations. I'd be more familiar with Laraghcon than Beech Park but I'm not aware of any antisocial behaviour with either.

Beech Park would be closer to Lucan village and therefore, the majority of schools. Beech Park would also have had better proximity to bus routes, but with the recent bus route changes, I can only assume this situation is the same.

I think it has improved in recent years, but Laraghcon used to have traffic issues with tailbacks going down the hill to the traffic lights before the bridge. St Catherine's Park is walking distance too.

There are pros and cons to both. One thing I'd consider is that since Laraghcon is on the edge of Lucan, it is more likely to have further developments in the area (Rokeby is beside it and newer) over the next few decades whereas Beech Park is very unlikely to have the same.

Both nice but if your commute means you've to head into lucan village to get where you are going then seriously research the laraghcon traffic problem. Nice houses though.

Beech Park closer for schools. Also nice area. Older houses.

I have lived in Laraghcon for about 5 years. Very close to that house for sale actually. That specific house has been cleared out recently and repainted so is a total blank canvass. The shed was removed and dumped so the garden is too. We faced the exact same choice as you as we were also looking at a very similar house in Beech Park.

We love laraghcon, its right beside Catherines park and is walking distance to the village. The Artisan Pantry is close, as is the wine shop, butcher, veg shop etc and there is a new tapas restaurant going in opposite the butcher too. The walk down to the village long weirview beside the river is lovely.

The traffic on the hill down to the village can be busy in the mornings. from when you join leaving laraghcon you would need to budget 10 minutes to get through it and reach the liffey bridge, its tolerable once you are ok with it. we knew it moving in as we used to come past it anyway driving from our old place. I actually timed it this morning as I intended to post in this thread. From when we left Laraghcon and joined the back of the traffic it took us exactly 10 minutes to get across the bridge. I think people overstate it a bit. Castleknock, Clonsilla, Coolmine, Lexilip, everywhere have similar issues. I was 15 minutes getting through leixlip village last week due to traffic on the hill. Traffic can be heavy in the mornings both ways our of beech park too and the St josephs entrance can be busy with parked cars from the school. If you are going north to leixlip or clonsilla etc from laraghcon you will be fine. no traffic that way.

The houses in laraghcon are around 15 years old now. The ones in beech park are 80? 70s? The house looked at in Beech park was very similar and looked bit dated. Needed modernising. One thing I would say if you are looking in laraghcon, check out the boilers. If its the original potterton it wont be very efficient and wont last forever. Ours went last year, new viessman was 2.5K. We got dry verge done on our house last year but otherwise no issues. Its a lovely estate and the houses are big and more modern. Nice big green (27 acres).

Im glad we went for it. Id made the same choice again. But you would do well with either they are both nice places. It was probably the actual house that was the deciding factor for us. Beech park house was a lot older and a bit tired. I think the Beech park houses can be a bit over priced for what they are. But the beech park house you linked to looks very nice. The BER is D2 on beech park though and the laraghcon house has a third floor and 35 square meters more overall. The main bedrooms are big in those houses. The people either side of the laraghcon are very nice and so is the house behind. You wont have any neighbour issues. Id view it anyway for sure.

As said above Beech park is in a nice place but the houses are nicer in laraghcon. tough call.

Oh to add while I think of it. The laraghcon house is already dry verged so you wont need to do that and for the beech park house (well the one we looked at anyway) we were told the attic wasnt suitable for conversion (without dormer addition) as the roof was too low. The girls secondary is very close to beech park (st josephs) as is the boys CBS. easily waked too in 5 or 10 minutes. From laraghcon to either on foot maybe, 20?

My kids are younger so I have no recent experience of the secondary schools but I went to secondary myself in the boys CBS. The mixed ones I know of are LCC (Lucan community college) and kings (private) which both have really good reputations.

there is a very good and active Facebook page called Lucan parents that might be able to advise more of that. Lots of parents of teenagers on it.

Lucan is a very big area and there are some spots that can be a bit mixed. But around the village I have always found very nice and never had any issues. Laraghcon and beech are both among the nicer settled areas. I wouldn’t expect any major problems. I grew up locally so I know it well.

the houses in laraghcon, there’s around 250-300 I think. At most you’d see 1-2% for sale at any one time. There have been some over the last 3 years since I moved in but they tend to go fast.

From a transport point of view, I would think that as the area around and past Laraghcon becomes more built up and spreads out, there will be pressure on CIE to open a train station, just a bit further out the road at the canal/train bridge.

It's the Maynooth line, which is due to be upgraded and electrified very soon. The upgrade will increase the speed and frequency of the commuter trains apparently. In fact, CIE have already recently opened up a new station on that line, further in towards Town at Pelletstown.

When the line is upgraded, no doubt the land will be rezoned from agricultural to housing, and there's going to be a lot of pressure on CIE for new stations, and in that location I mentioned, they would be building on a Greenfield site.

Years ago, it was part of the planning conditions that the developer who built apartments around the current Navan Road Parkway station, that they were obliged to build a train station first. The station was originally named called the Phoenix Park stop by the developer, despite being nowhere near the Phoenix Park.

This might take a couple of years, but it will happen eventually. Into town in about 20 mins.

Out of those two, Beech Park all the way.

House layout is obviously better in the newer house Laraghcon, but Beech Park would be an older, more established area.

There may be more kids in Laraghcon (younger families)!if your kids are looking to make friends.

Garden in Laraghcon seems very open? Not at all private. Maybe it’s the photo. Both gardens are quite small- surprised at beech park being that small as gardens tended to be bigger in older houses

I don’t live in either area but would personally much prefer Lucan to Dunboyne.

It all depends where you work. I like Lucan village but the traffic can be brutal. The Newcastle road from Adamstown to the N4 can also be a nightmare.

If you work in town then I would try to get a house in Adamstown so you are in walking distance of the train station. It only takes 20 minutes to get from Adamstown to Heuston. There are plenty new estates being built.

Where did you end up buying? We are looking at Lucan ATM

I see 188 is still available.