A public right of way across a 300-acre site earmarked as a new home for Dún Laoghaire golf club at Ballyman, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, would render it inoperable as a golf course, the Circuit Civil Court has heard.
Mr Hugh O'Neill SC, for developers Joseph, Peter and Michael Cosgrave, told the court his clients were three brothers who had bought the Ballyman farm from John Heatley Leeson to develop it as a 27-hole golf course for Dún Laoghaire golf club.
Mr O'Neill said the Cosgraves were seeking a declaration that the alleged public right of way from Ballyman Road to Barnaslingan Lane via Glenmunder and the grounds of Phrompstown House, as included in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown development plan, does not exist.
Ms Carol O'Farrell, counsel for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, has told the court that the right of way had, since time immemorial, been used constantly by the public and latterly by hillwalkers.
She said a 1937 Ordnance Survey map showed a footpath defining the public right of way. A stile was in place on Barnaslingan Lane for public access to it. Stepping stones on an undated Valuation Office map of the Dublin-Wicklow county boundary at Annaghaskin led directly to the right of way. Ms O'Farrell said it provided direct access to a "threshing machine" beside Ballyman House and, according to an 1836 map, access to sand and gravel pits and small mine workings.
She said the Archaeological Survey of Ireland recorded a long-standing human settlement in Annaghaskin and Ballyman adjacent to the right of way. Ecclesiastical remains, pit burials and stepping stones had been recorded at Ballyman. There had also been records of small cabins and cottages in Annaghaskin and Phrompstown and the council would contend that locals would have used the right of way.