It's cute, it's touristy and film directors fall over each other to use it as a backdrop for shoots. Yet before the ink is dry on the new millennium, Enniskerry could be undergoing expansion that will turn this once quiet backwater into a vibrant town. As part of the Draft Plan released by Wicklow County Council earlier this month, an additional 39 acres of Powerscourt lands have been marked for inclusion within the village boundary. If, as is probable, this is rezoned for residential housing, the Eagle Valley development could extend as far as Kilgarron.
The intention is to draw up a separate town plan for several Wicklow villages that are bursting at the seams. These include Kilcoole, Newtownmount kennedy, and Blessington. According to the Independent TD and Wicklow county councillor, Mildred Fox, the council will redraw boundaries and decide how lands will be rezoned. "Inevitably it will mean higher densities in the area. The infrastructure will have to be looked at and monies laid down to improve the roads," she says.
A small parcel of land north of Countybrook, six acres opposite Kilgarron Park and two acres at Cookstown will also be brought within the town boundaries, says councillor Michael Lawlor. Although housing is an inevitable priority, he assures us that services such as shops and open spaces will also be part of the overall plan.
A separate proposal currently under consideration near Enniskerry is a scheme for a science and technology park on the former infill site at Fassaroe, Bray. Michael Lawlor, chairman of Bray UDC, describes this proposed Cosgrave development as "a state of the art park that will be better than Plassey in Limerick." At first glance, Enniskerry is still the compact village originally built to house estate workers at Powerscourt. The square with its clock tower surrounded by well-tended roses is at the centre. Around the clock and on Church Hill, visitors have a good choice of restaurants, craft centres and gourmet food shops. At weekends, it's impossible to get a table in Poppies or Harvest Home with so many hill walkers and families out from the city for a bit of fresh air.
The Enniskerry address stretches to the outskirts of Kilmacanogue, northwards to the Scalp and half-way to Glencree. A number of fine old country houses with parkland keep the surrounding countryside virtually unspoiled. Children growing up here ride ponies instead of bicycles, yet there are regular buses to Dublin and a DART feeder to Bray. There are three national schools and a choice of second-level schools in Bray. Riding stables abound and Kilternan Country Club and Powerscourt Springs health resort are close to the village.
Powerscourt estate and the big house still dominates the landscape. Owners, the Slazenger family, reopened the house in July 1997 after a fire in the 1970s reduced the main wing to a shell. The Eagle Valley housing development was part of an overall plan that included the restoration of the house. The ensuing restaurant, function rooms and craft shops at Powerscourt have received both praise and criticism from politicians and local residents.
Buyers queued to pay from £242,000 for the large detached houses at Eagle Valley when they were first launched in 1996. These have been fetching very high rents and are now valued at from £495,000 to £510,000.
Premium prices are paid these days for anything in Enniskerry. Large period properties that used to change hands for around a million are worth four times that amount, according to Herbert O'Reilly of the Hamilton Osborne King. This agency sold Bushy Park, an exquisite early 18th century house on 28 acres, to singer Chris de Burgh three years ago for £1.2 million. Hunter's Lodge, smaller but equally attractive with two acres, sold for £450,000 eleven months later.
You would just about buy a modern four-bedroom bungalow for that now says Mr O'Reilly. "Last year was the year the general environs of Enniskerry were discovered for the first time by buyers. Prices then rose very strongly to rival those achieved in the very best parts of south Dublin." Character is what buyers expect when property-hunting in this part of north Wicklow. There was a lot of interest last summer in a pretty two bedroom period house on Church Hill, Enniskerry with a shop to the front and a long back garden, which Lisney finally sold for £250,000. Cottages in poor repair occasionally come on the market, selling for around £100,000 and more if they have good gardens.
Last year Douglas Newman Good sold two cottages needing a complete overhaul for £125,000 and £130,000. They have just completed the sale of a third in reasonable condition for in excess of £160,000. Eighteen months ago a cottage needing work at Countybrook sold for £130,000 and Sherry FitzGerald last season sold a semi-detached cottage on an acre here for in excess of £180,000 Some Enniskerry cottages have achieved very high figures. A tiny cottage at Monastery, described as "a refurbishment opportunity" sold last September for £220,000. Coolakeagh Cottage at Ballybawn was sold with five acres last September by Jackson Stops & McCabe for £405,000. The same property sold for £140,000 six years ago.
Bargains are hard to find. Excouncil houses, usually a good first-time buyers choice, are going for high prices in Enniskerry - when they can be found. Sherry FitzGerald sold a couple of semidetached ex-council houses at Monastery Grove sold in 1998 for over £100,000 and a bungalow on Kilgarron Park for over £120,000.
Change has never come easily to Enniskerry. The plan when it is posted will be keenly debated by villagers who will be concerned that the warmth and closeness of their community will endure.
"We will have to be conservationists, not preservationists," says councillor Michael Lawlor, putting down a marker.
