Having tried and failed to secure planning permission for the development of a boutique holiday resort and surf school on the clifftop lands at Magheramore Beach in Co Wicklow, Paddy McKillen jnr’s Oakmount has instructed online auction specialist BidX1 to offer the property for sale.
The 21-acre holding is being put up for auction on March 27th next at a guide price of €550,000, or some €150,000 less than the €700,000 Mr McKillen paid to secure ownership of the lands at auction in 2021.
The figure represented a massive premium on the €210,000 the property had been guiding on that occasion.
Intense competition involving five parties on the day saw more than one bidder offer in excess of €550,000 for the lands. Wicklow County Council was among the unsuccessful underbidders.
Paddy McKillen jnr puts Magheramore Beach lands up for auction at €550,000
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Following its acquisition of the property, Creatively Pacific Ltd, a subsidiary of McKillen’s Oakmount, sought permission for the development of what it described as an integrated tourism/leisure, recreational (ITLR) complex along with 48 accommodation pods and a surf school facility on a 2.95-hectare (7.329-acre) portion of the 8.53-hectare (21.07-acre) site.
[ Planners block Paddy McKillen jnr’s €40m seaside resort in Co WicklowOpens in new window ]
The plan was rejected by Wicklow County Council in May 2023. A subsequent appeal of the council’s decision to An Bord Pleanála was refused on January 29th last.
Contacted for comment on Oakmount’s decision to sell the lands, a spokeswoman for the company said: “We were very disappointed that Bord Pleanála didn’t approve our plans for our beautifully designed nature sensitive hotel resort. So we are now putting this incredibly beautiful piece of land on the market so another plan can be developed for its future”.
Owned originally by the Columban order of sisters before its original sale back in the 1980s, and several sales since, the land serves as the route to Magheramore Beach, a beautiful cove beloved by surfers and the setting for numerous TV productions including historical dramas such as Vikings and Camelot, the EastEnders spin-off series Redwater, and Amy Huberman’s Finding Joy.
In recent years the popular beach between Blainroe and Brittas Bay has served as the location for the annual “dip in the nip”, which sees a hardy band of swimmers take to the waves to raise funds for cancer research.
The cove is also a hotspot for water sports, and is widely considered the best location for surfing on Ireland’s east coast.
Commenting on Magheramore in their guide to the country’s best swimming spots, At Swim, Brendan MacEvilly writes: “You’d pass the place easily, 1.5km south of Blainroe Golf Club. It’s noticeable only by a couple of cars parked on the road . . .on a beach like this you might prefer things to stay as they are: peaceful. The only sound is the gushing of waves. A high wall of lush reeds, ferns and evergreens surround the beach, blocking out the world.”
