485 Kerry buildings listed for protection

A video store, a house seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, several hairdressing salons and some well-known hotels are among…

A video store, a house seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, several hairdressing salons and some well-known hotels are among the 485 "structures" drawn up for protection by Kerry County Council.

Council members adopted the list yesterday. It will go before the public for a month. Under the Local Government (Planning and Development Act), 1999 all counties must list structures to be protected.

"The list of buildings is not necessarily the grand old house like Muckross House, although it does, of course, include the house. It is of everyday vernacular architecture that are if anything under more serious threat," Ms Una Cosgrave, heritage officer with Kerry County Council, explained.

When Kerry's architectural heritage listing is complete - the exercise is ongoing - up to 6,000 buildings will be included, she said.

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The Parknasilla Hotel, Sneem, Cahernane Hotel, Killarney, and the Park Hotel in Kenmare are included. So too are the Annascaul Old Bridge and the Temperance Hall, Main Street, Dingle. Sneem Garda station is also included.

Glashnacree House near Sneem, which was seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau last summer and later sold for £1 million, is also listed.

Morgan's Hair Salon in Henry Street, Kenmare, is part of a terrace of limestone buildings dating from 1835. The Video Shack in Main Street Ballybunion is a terraced two-storey building with a traditional timber plaster shopfront.