RTE has been refused permission to retain a controversial fence around its transmitter on Mount Leinster.
The 2m-high barbed wire fence was erected last year for safety and security reasons, the station said, but hill walkers were outraged to discover the mountaintop was no longer accessible.
Local sheep farmers objected to the loss of about 3-1/2 acres of land in a common grazing area. Mr Liam Fitzgerald, Carlow County Council's senior roads engineer and former planning officer, said the authority had refused an RTE application to retain the structure.
The decision was welcomed by a Green Party councillor, Mary White, who claimed it was a victory for the environment and democracy. For centuries the tops of mountains had been open for recreational users who respected the intrinsic beauty of such places, she said.
"We have no lakes and no foreshore but we do have our mountains. Carlovians were deeply concerned at the act of developmental barbarism."
A spokeswoman for RTE said an appeal to An Bord Pleanala was being considered. The station said last year the fence was necessary to protect RTE's property and the public. It had been required to erect the barrier under health and safety regulations published by the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation.
An Taisce, the Green Party, the Tullow Mountaineering Club, the Friends of Mount Leinster, the Keep Ireland Open campaign and local farmers were involved in a campaign to have the fence removed.
The structure was initially eight feet high when erected last August but was reduced to two metres as a fence of this height in a rural area is normally exempt from planning laws. However, the exemption did not apply in cases where the land in question had been habitually open to the public for the previous 10 years, the council said.
Ms White congratulated those who had maintained a campaign to have it taken down. "The final celebration will be held when the last strand of fencing comes down and the landscape has been restored to its former glory," he said.
