Just another ghost estate – Callan, co Kilkenny
Ireland Ghost estates
Yesterdays Lunch time walk was a little more attractive than today’s, at some point however I wanted to post about Ireland’s and Kilkenny’s ghost estates.
The country as a whole feels like its gone through the worst of the last years since 2007, however when you take a walk around these local ghost estates you may not think so.
I took the below photograph during the building of this new estate in Callan, during July 2007.
The Callan housing estate in these pictures was the last to be built in 2007, other estates in the town being built between around 2004 and 2008. None of the houses in this estate ever sold and I heard recently that the council are about to order its demolition.
The entire area around the estate is covered in broken glass, yet there is nothing to stops any Adult,child or dog walking around this location….
Number of Irish Ghost estates by counties Carlow (15), Cavan (21), Clare (9), Cork City (6), County Cork (90), Donegal (22), Dublin City (24), Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (10), Fingal (17), Galway City (6), Galway County (20), Kerry (21), Kildare (25), Kilkenny (21), Laoighis (15), Leitrim (21), Limerick City (0), Limerick County (11), Longford (19), Louth (17), Mayo (21), Meath (19), Monaghan (18), Offaly (6), Roscommon (35), Sligo (24), South Dublin (7), Tipperary North (16), Tipperary South (17), Waterford City (6), Waterford County (9), Westmeath (18), Wexford (24), Wicklow (11).
More images…
Nigel Borrington 
Well done Nigel. This is a deeply disturbing post. It is so shocking. It is a terrible, terrible waste. It seems completely insane that so many houses are going to waste. From visits home to Ireland over the past five years, I understand the truth of what you have so succinctly portrayed here. This past April was the worst I’ve seen in terms of the heart and soul of the country – people are feeling completely trampled after so many years of austerity measures. Your post highlights the appalling reality of the situation.
May 30, 2013 at 2:04 pm
Thank you for your comments Anne 🙂
Your comments are so welcomed and brilliant that I am going to say nothing more! Your comments the pictures and everyone’s feelings!!!! 🙂 🙂
May 30, 2013 at 2:08 pm
I’ve been madly emailing the link to this post to friends and family since I read it!!! Blanket street now though – the rug rats will be awake in a few hours!
May 30, 2013 at 2:15 pm
🙂
May 30, 2013 at 4:09 pm
Terribly sad … I hope they can, at least, get the demolition and clean up right and plant a few trees so Mother Nature can reclaim and make beautiful again.
May 30, 2013 at 2:25 pm
I think that’s the perfect solution Dorothy and it’s also what should have happened in the first place. I remember thinking while watching the building going on, that we need more parks not more houses!!!
Thank you 🙂
May 30, 2013 at 3:52 pm
The question is – would you buy one? If not, why should anyone else?
I’ve often wondered what the problem with Ireland is, I’ve met so many lovely Irish people, visited it on several occasions, as a holidaymaker ’tis true, seems a lovely place, but all the talent seems to want to move somewhere else. I know from a historical perspective many had no choice through starvation/privation – is it still the case? Is it problem with the politics? (Maybe the r word?)
Building houses is a fine way to get some builders off the dole queue, but if you have no customers what’s the point? sorry, I don’t know enough.
May 30, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Hello Stephen
Thank you for your comment 🙂
I think your comment :
“Building houses is a fine way to get some builders off the dole queue, but if you have no customers what’s the point? sorry, I don’t know enough.”
Proves that you do indeed know enough, also I don’t think many people living here know any-more than yourself as to what’s truly taken place.
A word list may help
Money, profit, networking, business, friends, vested, interests, growth, banks, planning, sort, term, thinking, none, people, nowhere, money, taken, run!
May 30, 2013 at 3:59 pm
🙂 you’ve left off a few, but in the good sense of avoiding litigation I’ll not suggest what they are…… 😉
May 30, 2013 at 5:43 pm
Similar things happened in the US–in my old neighborhood near Chicago there was a lot of demolition going on for new projects to be built in 2007. 2008 came and the developers lost their financing before they actually got started building, so the town was dotted with a lot of vacant lots. Now building is picking up again, so somebody must know something that I don’t!
May 30, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Hello Alli.
Sounds like fixing problems by trying more of the same thing that created the problems in the first place….
I think we all need to play a part by being very worried when next time we are told its OK to spend spend and borrow !
Property development appears to be a business that gets money based on how many people exists not how many people will purchase. it’s like asking the bank for money to set up a shop because lots of people walk down your street, great but will they come through the door ?
May 30, 2013 at 6:10 pm
It looks very spooky.
Makes me wonder what kind of people used to live there, and where they are now.
Good shots!
May 30, 2013 at 9:03 pm
Hello Esmee’s
Thanks for commenting, No one every did live in these homes, they never found anyone who needed them. That’s the craze thing builders got planning permission, banks lent the money but no one needed places like this. Also some of these estates in Ireland were so badly built they could not be sold anyway.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0509/391264-priory-hall/
May 30, 2013 at 11:45 pm
We live in difficult times. I appreciated your thoughtful presentation.
May 30, 2013 at 9:48 pm
Thank you Rebecca 🙂
May 30, 2013 at 9:49 pm
Really, that’s heartbreaking.
May 30, 2013 at 11:31 pm
Hello Elen, 🙂
Thank you for your comment , ….
May 30, 2013 at 11:39 pm
A terrible waste and now a blight on the landscape. Greed without consideration for the future always fails. Excellent post Nigel.
May 31, 2013 at 12:42 am
Thank you Sharon, absolutely Sharon !!!!
May 31, 2013 at 1:33 pm
Wow… so sad. What a waste…
May 31, 2013 at 1:16 am
Hello Rene…
Yes !
Hopefully soon this will get sorted out 🙂 and then never be repeated ?
May 31, 2013 at 1:34 pm
Great project Nigel.
May 31, 2013 at 11:27 am
Thank you Shaun 🙂
May 31, 2013 at 11:44 am
Great post Nigel. It’s hard to fathom such waste.
May 31, 2013 at 1:38 pm
Hello Norma, Thank you ….
Yes and you wonder if anyone is going to truly do something about it ? they say they will but if this place is the same or worse next year no one will be shocked!
Thanks for you comments Norma 🙂
May 31, 2013 at 8:46 pm