Last home of Yeats may be the setting for Rathfarnham buyers

Planning applications for a housing development at Riversdale House, the final home of W B Yeats, have been lodged with South Dublin County Council. The 17th century farmhouse in its own grounds on Ballyboden Road in Rathfarnham was the subject of a planning application for demolition and replacement with a 28-unit apartment scheme earlier this year.

The house stands on about four acres. There is a mews coachhouse, garage, store and other outbuildings. A gate lodge and distinctive gates and piers front on to Ballyboden Road, and there is an old arched bridge, in poor condition, in the grounds.

The proposed demolition provoked a storm of protest, and in June, the members of South Dublin County Council voted to add the house, gates and gate piers and the arched bridge to the council's list of protected structures.

The new applications, which were lodged in June and September, seek permission for courtyard-style houses and a reduced apartment development in the grounds. Riversdale House itself, which is the subject of the protection order, is to be retained in the proposed development and permission has been sought for its conversion into office space.

The first new application was lodged on June 28th and seeks approval for 18 apartments in two blocks, each described as two storey with attic space. One block will contain 14 apartments and the second will have four units. There are also plans for car-parking spaces and landscaping.

This proposal includes the demolition of the gate lodge which the application describes as derelict and the preservation and restoration of the old arched bridge, gates and piers.

The second application was lodged last September and is for five two-bedroom coach-house style mews houses to the side and rear of Riversdale House. Both applications are in the name of Begley Clarke with an address at Adelaide Court, Gleageary.

The September application describes the existing outbuildings as "disused and part demolished". They are itemised as a former coach-house, stores and garage. The application was recently the subject of requests by South Dublin County Council for further information.

According to a council spokeswoman, the elected members decided last June to add the house to its list of protected structures after council officials had approved the initial application for demolition. The spokeswoman said the action was designed to ensure that Riversdale House and the other structures listed would not be demolished. The move, she said, was in response to popular opinion, which dictated that the house should be saved.

"The proposal to add the house to the list of protected structures was advertised and a lot of submissions from the public were received. The fact that it is a period house with important associations was pointed out by many people who felt that W B Yeats may have written some of his work there."

Yeats took a 13-year lease on the house in 1932, living there with his wife, George, and two children, Anne and Michael. He is said to have found solace there after the death of Lady Gregory and the demise of Coole Park. Two of his later poems, What Then? and An Acre Of Grass, are about Riversdale. It was the setting for his last meeting with Maud Gonne in the summer of 1938.

The campaign against demolition was initiated by 18 leading writers and academics.