Rewilded golf course should stay wild, say Saggart residents

Saggart residents are calling on local authorities and landowners to retain the rewilded CityWest Executive Golf Course as an ecological habitat and amenity for the local area.

The golf course, which closed in 2010, has been essentially left to the elements over the past decade with an abundance of flora and fauna repopulating the old course.

Dave Behan, a member of the Saggart Village Residents Association (SVRA) says that the local residents have been maintaining and documenting the site since its closure.

“The golf course hasn’t been maintained properly since its closed,” says Behan.

“Residents have been doing it themselves, cutting the grass and whatnot.”

However, Behan says that in the past couple of years, “rabbits, frogs, squirrels, swans etc. have all moved into the habitat

“It really is gorgeous what we have here,” he says.

Another local resident and member of the SVRA, Juliet Henshaw drafted an ecological report of the land to document all of its flora and fauna.

The report was drafted with the aim of potentially deferring any potential future development on the land as it is still owned by Citywest Hotel.

The residents association originally intended on getting the ecological report drafted professionally but the ongoing pandemic hampered those efforts.

“Saggart villagers are very fortunate to have an amazing rewilded greenspace in their urban surrounds,” says Henshaw in the report.

“Unfortunately, due to the endless encroachments of new developments in neighbouring areas this may not always be the case.

“The remaining greenspaces must be protected.”

Behan says that Saggart residents would like the old golf course to be turned into a public park or a protected habitat for “schools to come in on nature walks and learn about the animals we have here.

“It is a magnet for kids playing with a ball or going for a walk,” he says.

In the report, Henshaw says that the “residents of Saggart have come together on a voluntary basis in an effort to save Saggart’s greenspaces and to preserve the wildlife and fauna that has made the rewilded Old Executive Golf Course a home for the past 11 years.

“Therefore, the aim of this report is to successfully safeguard ‘the lungs of Saggart’ in a way that it will flourish and be enjoyed Saggart’s rapidly increased, diverse population.

“The people of Saggart do not want Saggart to become a concrete jungle.”

Behan says that Saggart residents have been campaigning South Dublin County Council to draft an area plan for the village, eager for the community to represented independently from Citywest.

“Saggart is a heritage village,” he says.

“We want it to be kept separate.

Behan says that if the old course was to be developed, Saggart could potentially grow into Citywest.

“We don’t’ have an area plan for the village and the golf course is the only thing separating Saggart and Citywest,” he says.

Tetrarch Capital, the owners of Citywest Hotel, currently has plans to develop several residential units and a sporting complex on nearby lands, a project that has Saggart residents concerned.

“The hotel owners have not communicated with anybody living in the area,” says Behan.

“The residents haven’t been consulted and from what we have heard it will be a private, commercial enterprise that will not benefit the local community.

“We are weary that this could mean the old golf course could be next.”