From a dump to a national park to housing: how plans for Liffey Valley Park have changed over the years

Where the Strawberry Beds sweep down to the Liffey in west Dublin, there was once a plan they would face a large municipal dump.Back in the mid-1980s, the now defunct Dublin County Council planned to develop a landfill at Waterstown, 12km west of the city centre, close to Palmerstown, on the river’s south bank. There was already an unlicensed private tip taking commercial and industrial waste, but the council wanted to increase dramatically the size of the dump and fill it with domestic waste from households across the capital. The council, then under the management of George Redmond, argued that the dump would operate for a five-year period only and the land would then be redeveloped as a park.READ MOREDubliners were having none of it. Residents from across the Liffey Valley area banded together to form the Liffey Valley Defence Alliance (LVDA) to press politicians to scrap the dump.They were successful. The council abandoned its landfill plans and following concerted campaigning by the alliance and environmental groups, the State’s first Special Amenity Area Order was issued in 1990 for the Liffey Valley.This designation meant the riverside, on both banks from Chapelizod to Lucan, would be protected from future development. It also gave impetus to plans for a Liffey Valley park stretching all the way from Dublin to Kildare. By 2000 the Liffey Valley Park Alliance (LVPA) had formed, which involved the LVDA residents’ groups as well as environmental bodies including the Irish Wildlife Trust and An Taisce.In 2004 it produced a proposal for a national park, combining land already in State ownership with large institutional lands and smaller private sites under a single authority. This would make the river corridor accessible to pedestrians and cyclists, and facilitate the restoration of historic Liffey-side buildings and the opening of amenities along the river.The river Liffey at Edmundsbury in Lucan. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien The Office of Public Works (OPW) supported the proposal and in 2006 published Towards a Liffey Valley Park. This strategy document largely reflected the goals of the alliance and aimed to provide an “integrated management framework for the Liffey Valley” with a park “composed of a necklace of publicly owned spaces within this area”. The strategy identified a priority area from Dublin city to Celbridge with a series of “flagship projects”. These included measures to increase access to the river such as the construction of boardwalks between Heuston Station and Islandbridge, and a new bridge at the War Memorial Gardens in Kilmainham, opposite the Phoenix Park. It would also include the restoration of the late 19th century Guinness Bridge or Silver Bridge, which would connect Farmleigh and to Waterstown Park. On Lower Road, on the north bank of the river along the Strawberry Beds, the strategy recommended “traffic calming measures” which would, it said, “promote this route as a non-vehicular recreational route in the long term”. At the west end of the Strawberry Beds, Anna Liffey Mills, the former Shackleton flour mills about 2km from Lucan village, had been bought by Fingal County Council in 2002 and this would be “refurbished as a visitor attraction and centre for the Park”, the strategy said.Shackleton Mill in Lucan was bought by Fingal County Council in 2002 but remains closed to visitors. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Further west of Lucan Village, lands at Lucan Demesne and St Catherine’s Park should be connected and the river made accessible between Leixlip and Celbridge, it said. Progress has been made on some of these projects. Waterstown Park opened in 2009. Silver Bridge was “restored” in 2023 – but to the disappointment of campaigners, the bridge deck was not reinstated, leaving Waterstown Park inaccessible from the north side of the river. In a response last month to Fine Gael TD Emer Currie, South Dublin County Council said it would issue a tender shortly for a feasibility study to examine the viability of fully restoring the bridge as a cycle/pedestrian crossing.The pedestrian and cycle bridge from the War Memorial Gardens to Chapelizod Road is under construction, and due to open next year. It is the only new river crossing planned, with no other connections for 8.5km from Chapelizod to Lucan. The Heuston Station to Island Bridge boardwalks never materialised. Signs asking motorists to keep 1.5m from cyclists were erected along the Strawberry Beds, but the prospects of a “non-vehicular” route here are remote; there are no segregated cycle facilities and, for almost the entire road, no footpaths.[ The Curragh is full of natural treasures. It needs safeguardingOpens in new window ]Shackleton Mills remains closed. Lucan Demesne and St Catherine’s Park have been connected, but not to Lucan Village, and the river is mostly inaccessible from Leixlip to Celbridge. The OPW did in 2024 acquire Donaghcumper House from Kildare County Council on the south of the river, opposite Castletown House in Celbridge, and last year spent €11.25 million increasing its landholding at Castletown. The problem is, where projects have been completed, they remain disconnected, says LVPA chairman Paul Corcoran.Liffey Valley Park Alliance chairman Paul Corcoran and Fine Gael TD Emer Currie at Edmundsbury in Lucan, which they hope will form part of the Liffey Valley Park. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien “The four councils, Dublin City, Kildare, South Dublin and Fingal, have done their own little bits of investment, but this needs government-level investment and leadership. A Liffey Valley Park would be the size of six Phoenix Parks. Something that size needs an overarching authority, not lots of different stakeholders.”Minister for State with responsibility for the OPW, Kevin “Boxer” Moran, met the four local authorities last month to discuss progress on the implementation of the strategy, which he says he “strongly supports”, and plans a further meeting early next year.Since 2006 lands have gone on sale along the Liffey which, if they had been bought by the State, could have contributed to the development of the park. “There have been opportunities in those 20 years that were lost, I imagine due to difficult financial and economic circumstances we were in when lands came up for sale,” Currie says.“We have an infrastructure, climate and nature fund and I think the Government should examine whether that fund could be used to secure strategic lands along the Liffey, to restore it for biodiversity, climate resilience and public use.”[ The future of Phoenix Park: How it is facing challenge of an expanding cityOpens in new window ]In absence of the State stepping in, lands in private hands come under pressure for housing developments.Lands to the south of the river close to St Edmundsbury Hospital in Lucan are a case in point. Since the 1990s they have been subject to successive rezoning proposals. In 2007 they were sold to Sean Mulryan, who failed to secure rezoning. The property crash followed and the land came under the control of Nama. The LVPA urged the government to keep the land in State ownership, but the 270 acres were sold to businessmen John Magnier and JP McManus in 2013 for just over €4 million.The bloodstock and racing tycoons partnered with Cork developer Michael O’Flynn and have since made several rezoning requests to South Dublin County Council. In June, councillors voted against rezoning the lands for almost 500 homes. The developers are now urging the council to reconsider, saying the park would be delivered in tandem with the housing.LVPA chairman Corcoran is unconvinced by this pitch.“There would be light pollution, noise pollution, as well as the potential of run-off into the river,” he says.“That’s going to impact all sorts of protected species, such as pine martens, badgers, bats, kingfishers, which have all being detected here. “We want to reduce the fragmentation of the habitat, not worsen it.”