Sir, - Your Property Editor, Jack Fagan, writes about the potential of the six-acre designed landscape setting of the Casino in Malahide for the development of 175 apartments and houses (The Irish Times, September 23rd). It is important to realise that this small parkland was created specifically as a setting for this attractive surviving thatched Cottage orne of the Regency period. As such it is an integral part of this important building and should be preserved together with the house itself. There is little point in trying to protect historic buildings through the process of listing, if no attempt is made to protect their context and setting.
In the United Kingdom the settings of listed buildings (known as the "pink areas") are included in their overall protection. Furthermore, important historic gardens and parks are given special protection through a "Register of Historic Designed Landscapes". In Northern Ireland 150 historic designed landscapes are included on the register and are currently being incorporated onto the local government area plans. In this way important historic parkscapes are treated as special areas by the planners and not just (as is presently the case in the Republic) ordinary countryside. In view of the considerable damage recently caused by development to such important 18th-century parks as Headfort, Co Meath, I would suggest it is high time progress were made towards establishing a Register of Historic Designed Landscapes in the Republic of Ireland.-Yours, etc.,
Terence Reevessmyth, Glenoe Village, Co Antrim.