Kildare golf lodges to get extensions
Kilkea Lodges at Kilkea Castle
THE growth around Kilkea Castle is set to continue with the news that 10 of the golf lodges on the grounds to the rear of the 12th century landmark are each set to acquire a dormer extension to their first floor bedrooms after planners gave the green light last week.
Each dormer will be 10²m over the existing balconies on the lodges attached to the golf club which are used for short-term lettings associated with both the club and the hotel.
Though the land is not formally zoned, it is within the curtilage of a protected structure – the Castle and Moat – and sharing the demesne with a further 28 items of architectural and historical significance.
As the nearest Special Area of Conservation (SAC), the Barrow is almost four kilometres away, it was deemed unnecessary to subject the application to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
While the golf club has been on site since 1993, the lodges weren’t begun until 2004 when 33 were added to the grounds.
On two occasions, in 2020 and 2022, 140 and 160 PV panel were installed on the roofs of the Lodges, to provide 110Kw of power for the lodges and golf club.
This permission is just the completion of this work on the lodges as the other 23 were fitted with their dormers in 2023.
With no relevant planning enforcement on record, nor no objections – external or internal – the planners at Kildare County Council were able to grant permission within eight weeks of application.
The application was submitted through Kilkea Castle’s parent company – Wizard Earl Ltd.
This is a nice historical nod to a former resident of the castle from the 16th century, Gerald Fitzgerald, the 11th Earl of Kildare, successor and half-brother to Silken Thomas who was executed in 1537.
Hunted all over Ireland by Henry 8th in an effort to keep the family under Crown control, Gerald escaped into exile, an experience that would greatly shape his reputation.
In his travels he became very interested in alchemy, and on his return to Kilkea his practisings led superstitious locals to accuse him of magic powers.
The legend has it that in one of these ‘spells’ he turned into a bird, was pounced on by a cat, as was fated to ride a silver-shod horse on the grounds for the next 700 years.
