The owner of the Citywest hotel and the five-star Mount Juliet resort in Co Kilkenny will lodge plans in the coming days for a large-scale cemetery in Howth, north Dublin.
Tetrarch subsidiary WSHI Unlimited Co has given notice that will lodge plans with Fingal County Council in the coming days for a cemetery in Howth that would include 5,806 traditional burial plots.
If the Tetrarch company plans to compete with burial plot prices of up to €2,280 proposed by Fingal County Council for its own graveyards, the developer would stand to generate €13.24 million from the sale of the 5,806 traditional burial plots over the lifetime of the cemetery.
The cemetery is to be developed on a 8.8 hectare site at the Deer Park hotel and golf site at Deer Park within the Howth Estate in Howth.
WSHI Unlimited Company has separate plans before Fingal County Council to build a new 142-bedroom hotel on the site of the former Deer Park hotel in the Howth estate.
The published planning notice for the cemetery states that the cemetery is to also include 617 ash interment plots; biodegradable garden plots; 110 memorial plaques and 223 granite marker posts.
The development also envisages a columbarium wall for the storage of urns containing the cremated remains of deceased persons, a single-storey reception building and 87 car parking spaces.
The new cemetery would be accessed via a new vehicular route from Carrickbrack Road.
A spokesman for Tetrarch said on Wednesday: “In recognition of the shortage of burial space in the greater Dublin area and competing land use demands in most urban locations for housing and other purposes, an 8.8-hectare site within the extensive grounds of Howth Estate affords an opportunity to provide a range of burial options within an appropriate greenfield setting adjacent to St Fintan’s Cemetery on the Carrickbrack Road in Sutton.”
The spokesman said: “Subject to permission being granted, we hope that works would commence in 2024, with the new cemetery to be operational from 2025.”
The lodging of the planning application comes against the background of Fingal County Council proposing to increase the price of burial plots in the graveyards it owns and controls in its administrative area. New council draft burial bylaws are proposing to increase the price of a burial plot with a foundation for a headstone from €1,900 to €2,280, with the price of a burial plot without a headstone foundation to increase from €1,400 to €1,680.
