Newlands Cross Upgrade EIS - European Investment Bank

South Dublin County Council N7 Newlands Cross Upgrade
Environmental Impact Statement
Arup Consulting Engineers
• The Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill, 2006
• Heritage Act, 1995
• Guidelines on the information to be contained in Environmental Impact Statements, 2002,
EPA
• Advice Notes on Current Practice (in preparation of Environmental Impact Statements),
2003, EPA
• Frameworks and Principles for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage, 1999,
(formerly) Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and Islands
• Architectural Heritage (National Inventory) and Historic Monuments (Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act, 2000 and the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 2000
• Guidelines for the Assessment of Architectural Heritage Impact of National Road
Schemes, 2006, NRA
• Guidelines for the Assessment of Archaeological Heritage Impact of National Road
Schemes, 2006, NRA
12.3 Existing Environment
12.3.1 Architectural and Cultural Heritage
12.3.1.1 Background
Development around the junction at Newlands Cross is depicted on the historic mapping from
as early as 1816, with the Shoulder of Mutton inn at the crossroads and other scattered
structures extending out along the four roads (Section 12.3.1.2). Several of the structures
shown on the 19 th century Ordnance Survey mapping survive and are situated in close
proximity to the proposed upgrade works. Two of these, a farmhouse (RPS 174; ID No.2) and
farmbuilding (ID No.3, RPS 172, Table 12.3) aligned onto the present N7 road, are protected
structures and represent one of the few surviving elements of the formerly agricultural
landscape that lay beyond the crossroads. A cottage (listed in the NIAH; ID No.5, Table 12.5),
on the south side of the original Dublin-Naas road in Buckandhounds, is typical of many of
the dwellings constructed along roadsides in the 19 th century. All of these structures are
described in full in Section 12.3.1.2.
The stone manor houses, or what became known in Ireland as the ‘big house’, were
constructed by planter families in County Dublin, as elsewhere in the country, roughly
between the years 1670 and 1850, and they are often found near to or on the sites of older
ruined castles or tower houses, churches or defunct administrative centres. Big Houses were
also often situated within embellished and ornamented demesne land ringed by high walls
(McCullough & Mulvin, 1987). Newlands Demesne (now a golf course) occupies the lands on
the southwest side of the crossroads, although the house associated with the late 17 th century
demesne was demolished in 1981 by the Newlands Golf Club. An ice-house associated with
the demesne was also demolished in the later 20 th century (Catherine Condren, Administrator,
Newlands Golf Club, Pers.Comm.). This was located in an area of woodland in the
southwestern portion of the demesne, close to an old quarry pit (Eamonn Dowling,
Pers.Comm.).
Newlands Golf Club was established on the Newlands Demesne in 1926. Up to that time, the
demesne lands had remained substantially within the same parameters laid out in the late 17 th
century by Sir John Cole, who is credited with establishing the demesne (Dowling 2001).
With the exception of land taken for road-widening on both the Naas Road and the Belgard
Road boundaries in the late 20 th century, the acreage and shape of the golf course is still much
as it was then. This can be confirmed by comparison of the present Newlands Golf Course
with the earliest Ordnance Survey map of 1843 and with a manuscript map drawn up for Lord
Kilwarden in 1802.
December 2007 Page 175