Rail project plans an 'abomination' that will 'destroy' nature reserve warns Dunsany Castle owner
Louise Walsh
Plans for a new billion-euro rail project will 'destroy' Ireland's largest privately owned nature reserve, according to its owner, who has described the proposals as an "absolute abomination".
Randal Plunkett says the preferred route for the Navan Rail Line Extension, released last week, will dissect his 650-hectare nature reserve, which is home to 264 hectares of rewilding in the backdrop of the 800-year-old Dunsany Castle and devastate over a decade's work at the only operating large-scale rewilding project, which is recognised by the European rewilding network.
In that time, there has been a 35 per cent increase in bird population, the doubling of the insect population, the return of the Great Spotted Woodpecker and the return and breeding of the Red Kite.
Pine Martens, otters, warblers, hares and sparrowhawks have also been spotted in numbers at the estate.
Last week, plans were confirmed by Iarnród Éireann for a 34km electrified route extending from the M3 Parkway to Navan. The project, expected to cost over €1 billion, will include new stations at Dunshaughlin, Kilmessan, Navan Central and Navan North, aiming for a 60-minute commute to Dublin city centre by 2035.
Public consultation opens until July 3rd, and Randal is urging the public to speak out against the destruction of the nature reserve.
He is now requesting that his nature reserve and Dunsany land be removed from the plans.
The proposed alignment, he says, would destroy the central 192-hectare block, fragmenting the most important central parcel of the reserve by clearing mature broadleaf woodland and essentially creating a barrier which would affect the free movement of wildlife.
In his submission, he says Dunsany is now home to 13 of the 54 red-listed bird species of conservation concern and home to eight out of the nine bat species native to Ireland.
"We support unreservedly the urgent expansion of public transport in the Greater Dublin area and county of Meath. We do not, and will not, support any route that delivers that public good at the price of destroying the largest privately owned nature reserve in Ireland and the only operating large-scale rewilding project recognised internationally.
"Alternative alignments via Dunshaughlin, Ratoath and Ashbourne serve substantially larger populations and avoid Dunsany."
In 2014, Randal ceased all livestock farming on the estate, withdrew the application of fertiliser, herbicide and pesticide and committed 264 hectares to ecological rewilding.
He is also currently undertaking a two-year voluntary joint venture between Dunsany, the Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), and the Office of Public Works (OPW) on Skane River restoration and rewilding.
He believes that the existence of various species, protected under EU and Irish Wildlife Acts, as well as environmental, conservation and ecological directives from the EU, could hold the plans up for years.
"In approximate scientific terms: this is one of the most species-rich, most legally protected and most actively recovering sites of its size anywhere in eastern Ireland.
"The notion that a modern railway corridor could be driven through that environment without irreversible damage is not a question of mitigation; it is a question of arithmetic.
"We therefore object, in the strongest terms permitted by law, to the inclusion of the Dunsany section of the Emerging Preferred Route, and we request its immediate removal from further consideration."
Randal has also composed a 'Save Dunsany Nature Reserve' submission for the public if they wish to raise concerns about the proposals.
