Plans by the owner of a 20-year-old hunting and fishing package holiday company for a shooting range set against the backdrop of the Macgillycuddy's Reeks in Co Kerry have been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.
The board felt the noise generated by the shooting range would spoil the amenities and devalue properties in the area, which is about 6km (3.7 miles) from the town of Killorglin.
The application, by John Mangan c/o EG Petit & Co Engineers of Shelbourne Road, Dublin, was for a 10-house holiday home development, roads and a shooting range in 45 acres of forestry close to Glancuttaun, Beaufort - within a short distance of the Macgillycuddy's Reeks.
A clay-pigeon shooting range element of the original proposal was withdrawn.
The proposal was for a shooting range with two shelters, five-metre high baffles and a two-metre high chain-link fence at the northern edge of the site.
Mr Mangan said his company, JMM Killorglin (Chasse & Peche), had been operating for 20 years in the area and attracted about 600 people annually during the shooting and fishing seasons.
It enjoyed a long relationship with both Coillte and the Killarney National Park in respect of game hunting and deer culling, he said.
Mr Mangan said there was a need for a remote hunting and fishing complex for autumn and winter hunting. He added that the large section not used for development would remain a commercial forest.
Rifles fired horizontally on a properly designed shooting range into an earth bank make much less noise than guns fired into the air, he argued.
There had been a number of objections from residents, as well as highly technical submissions on noise.
An Bord Pleanála inspector Frank Cosgrove said that, on the balance of probability, it might be possible to provide a shooting range that would be in use for just a couple of hours.
"However, serious doubts would remain about the enforceability of conditions aimed at preventing the range being used for clay-pigeon shooting and for shooting competitions and other events," he said, and he advised against granting permission.
The board ruled in accordance with its inspector, saying the siting of holiday homes in open countryside outside any village or other settlement would not be in accordance with the Kerry county development plan policy, which requires holiday homes to be located near villages.