The former Charlesland clubhouse.
The former Charlesland golf clubhouse.
Former golf club house, at Charlesland, Greystones.
Charlesland Golf Club House, in Greystones, County Wicklow, has come on the market for €1.7m.
Pitched as a ‘prime development opportunity’, the building, on a site of just over two acres, is some 2,595 square metres and overlooks the former golf club lands.
However, while it does present significant potential for a range of development opportunities, these are contingent on planning permission and re-zoning and on that, any prospective buyer finds themselves on something of a no man’s land, given the Greystones-Delgany and Kilcoole Local Area Plan is currently being developed to the year 2028, after Wicklow County Council (WCC) sought submissions from the public last year.
In the Delgany/Greystones area, there is a population allocation of roughly 21,700 persons for 2028 (from just over 18,000 in 2016). The housing growth target is roughly 678 from 2022 to 2031, but it is estimated that growth will far exceed this target range before the end of the plan.
One of those to make a submission to the plan were members of the Evans family, who own the former golf course lands, seeking the rezoning of the site from ‘Active Open Space’ to ‘Residential’.
They point to the Wicklow County Development Plans 2022 -2028, which indicates that Greystones may have to accommodate over 3,700 new people over its lifetime. With a total site, which is not part of the sale, of over 60 acres, there is a strong case.
However, there was a setback last year for the owners when WCC refused permission to have the club house developed into a total of nine residential homes. Now it is on the market
The club itself closed at the end of December, 2020, having been in operation since 1992 on land that was originally a family farm. It came despite heavy investments into the clubhouse and facilities, including a re-design of some of the original course layout. In 2014 Carr Golf were employed to maintain the golf course and manage club operations, but this wasn’t enough to save it.
