#BullochHarbour – Plans to redevelop the former Western Marine site at Bulloch Harbour, Dalkey in south Dublin, with a mixed development of houses, a café and shops are centre stage to a mounting campaign led by local opponents, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Developer Bartra Property Ltd lodged a planning permission with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as Afloat reported early this month but further details can be revealed with the depicted image above of the proposed three-storey structure. If granted planning permission this would involve demolition of the existing single-storey warehouse previously used by Western Marine.

The marine business that was based in Dalkey for almost half a century are to relocate to new premises elsewhere but locally within the borough.

The proposed structure at Bulloch Harbour is a mixed use block of two and three stories high containing seven marine based units at ground floor level along the quayside. In addition to six residential units at ground floor to the rear and first and second floor overhead.

According to the Save Bulloch Harbour campaign they have raised concerns on the impact of such a development on the character of the scenic south Dublin Bay harbour. Overlooking the harbour is Bulloch Castle dating to the 12th century having been founded by the Cistercian Monks who held lucrative fishing rights. 

A public meeting organised by Save Bulloch Harbour is to held on Thursday 5th January 2017.

The campaign is been led by the newly formed Bulloch Harbour Preservation Association, a group of boat owners, fishermen and harbour users. They claim that the harbour is one of the last small working harbours in county Dublin and the only place to keep or rent a small boat in the south of the county. The stone-cut harbour is notably popular in the summer with locals and tourists availing of marine leisure amenities.

The development in the planning application to DLRCC is described as a mixed-use marine commercial, leisure/community and residential based development, to consult click here.

According to Save Our Seafront (SOS) campaign of Dun Laoghaire Harbour, they claim the Bulloch Harbour development containing the three-storey houses are each about 5,000 square feet.

#BullochHarbour – Afloat in October reported of a planning application for a mixed development scheme at the former premises of Western Marine at Dalkey’s Bulloch Harbour, whose waters are under pilotage district of Dublin Port Company, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The developer Bartra Property Ltd has sought planning permission for commercial and residential units located at the scenic south Dublin Bay harbour's waterfront site. It is because of this coastal site that has led to fears by locals and from a newly formed Bulloch Harbour Preservation Group. In addition Dalkey Community Council has since held meetings with the developers, citing concerns that the development will have a big impact on the harbour as a recreational and historical amenity for locals and tourists alike.

Western Marine which has yet to reveal its new home, having for almost half a century occupied the Bulloch Harbour site to where if granted permission the development would require demolition of the existing former chandlery warehouses. The development would involve the construction of six terraced homes over “marine-based activity units” and a quayside café.

It is along this stone-cut quayside hewn of Dalkey granite, is where recent developments to improve the harbour took place throughout the summer, notably the removal of a redundant five tonnes boat-hoist crane, property of Dublin Port Company. The harbour in past times used to have larger vessels trading that saw coal imported by steam-powered colliers.

The improvement works were carried out by the joint efforts of Dublin Port Company, Bulloch Harbour Group and Dalkey Tidy Towns to transform the harbour. Asides the aforementioned removal of the boat-crane coloured in distinctive pale blue, associated works involved upgrading of boat storage areas. Boat users also have new quay wall ladders and use of a refurbished slipway.

Bulloch Harbour is one of the last working harbours in Dublin Bay with its small inshore fishing boats, a large boat-hire fleet popular with anglers during the summer months along with marine leisure users mostly kayakers. The harbour is also home to the 3rd Port / 41st Dublin-Dalkey Sea Scouts which celebrates this year a 60th anniversary.

As to the origins of the quaint harbour where still stands Bulloch Castle built in the 12th century overlooking the present day harbour entrance. The castle towerhouse was established by the Cistercian monks along with lucrative fishing rights. The castle afforded protection for the Monks from that of the marauding Wicklow tribes.

Also as part of the improvement works saw the removal of the rotting boat flower bed and its restoration was completed next to the RNLI flag staff.  There is no RNLI station located here but the local lifeboat RNLB Anna Livia from Dun Laoghaire Harbour does make visits to Bulloch for the annual 'Blessing of the Boats" ceremony. 

The blessing service sees the 'Trent' class lifeboat berth alongside the harbour’s broad pier where coal was discharged. For a photo and more about  ‘Maritime Dalkey’ (a five year long series) published in the September 2013 issue, click the Dalkey Community Council (newsletters) website.

According to the current newsletter, Dalkey Tidy Towns say that the harbour's improvement is a work in progress with more planned in 2017. 

#Floatels - The idea of floatels is still been worked out by Dublin City Council as it decides whether to move ahead with the idea of this concept of homes on big boats for students, workers or tourists. 

As the Dublin Inquirier writes some councillors are eager to explore the idea more. Some council officials seem less eager. But as the Dublin debates it, Dún Laoghaire Harbour is pressing ahead.

In the summer Afloat.ie reported that Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company put the idea of floatels for tourists out to tender. It received several responses and is now in advanced negotiations with a provider, said spokesperson Carolyn Hanophy.

“[We] hope to make a definitive decision about launching the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Flotel in the coming weeks,” she said.

For much more on the proposed floatel in Dublin click here. 

#WW1gun - A World War 1 gun retrieved from a wreck off Dalkey Island in Dublin Bay has recently gone on display at the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The restored 6-pounder Hotchkiss gun is from the wreck of HMS Guide Me II. The exhibit was recently remounted in the grounds of the former Mariners Church on Haigh Terrace. 

The HMS Guide Me II was built in 1907 as a Peterhead F.V. Drifter (i.e. a drift-net fishing boat) from the Scottish yard of Hall, Russell & Co in Aberdeen. In March 1915, she was hired by the Admiralty and converted into an anti-submarine coastal gunboat, with the addition of the six-pounder gun. 

During a patrol she collided and depending on reports, the incident occured with an unnamed vessel or the nearby Muglins, a rocky islet east of Dalkey Island. The site of impact is clearly visible as a large hole is on the starboard side.

The Guide Me II grossed 100 tons and was approximately 26m long and 5.6m wide. The wreck lies 1.5 miles south-east of the Muglins and was rediscovered in 1990 by Ivan Tunsted who also rasied the gun from a depth of 33 metres.  

For further details, they are available from INFORMAR by downloading  PDF document here 

In addition there’s also a 3D rendering (with a correct browser), from INFOMAR/Ulster University website click here

#DredgingDalkey - Industrial mussel seed dredging will leave Ireland's coastal waters "full of jellyfish and little else", convervationists claim.

As the The Irish Independent writes, four industrial trawlers had worked in Dublin Bay over the three days beginning last Sunday (23 October). 

Afloat.ie adds the dredging activity was understood to be for mussel seed fishing by the four trawlers dragging cage nets across the seabed of Dalkey Sound. On the final day of dredging, Tuesday, the last vessels to operate, the near 50m long Emerald Gratia (photo above) and 40m Rona, departed for Lough Foyle. The pair arrived last Wednesday at Carrickarory Pier, south of Moville.

The Irish Independent also in its coverage wrote, the Government permits industrial dredging for young mussels but last Thursday the Supreme Court ruled that the contents of the seabed inside our six-mile territorial limit are State "assets" and should be protected.

Two of the trawlers operating in Dublin Bay last week are understood to have been collecting seed mussel for "finishing" grounds in Welsh waters. 

Two others, registered in the Republic, are believed to have been dredging for mussel farms on the west coast of Ireland.

The sea area being dredged, like much of the coastal area of Ireland, has seen major declines in many types of sea life, with anglers and small commercial fishing operations reporting falls in catches year after year. And this summer, as in other recent years, beaches and bathing places around Irish inshore waters have been closed due to swarms of stinging jellyfish.

The few people still earning a living from inshore fishing said that the dredging was causing huge and long-term damage to our fisheries. "The damage caused by the dredgers is absolutely enormous," said Dalkey lobster fisherwoman and boat-hire operator Dolores Smith

"There are stretches of seabed just over there that have been obliterated. The Dublin Bay prawn is extinct now. There are none in the bay any more. People may call prawns Dublin Bay but they're from somewhere else because there are none left here."

Ms Smith also said there was a foul smell around Dalkey Sound and the other dredged areas."It smelt like rotting corpses; it was horrible out there," she added.

She pointed out that Dalkey Sound is officially designated a "specially protected area", yet this has not prevented the trawling of the seabed.

For more including a response from The Irish Wildlife Trust, the newspaper reports here. 

#FerryLinks – The Laser Radial World Championships hosted in Dun Laoghaire Harbour, is where participants of the prestigious championships, had use of a rather unusual launch facility, a ferry-linkspan, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Numerous lined-up laser trailers took to the incline of the linkspan on St. Michaels Pier (east) last in commercial use by Stena Lynx III in serving Holyhead. As a ferry correspondent, it was an odd sight to observe, even five years after the small fast-ferry plied the Ireland-Wales link. 

The absence of the larger HSS Stena Explorer fast-ferry last year (following closure in late 2014) marks the end of almost 190 years of continuous service to this year. The historic route dates to 1826. This summer work began to dismantle the former Stena HSS berth on St. Micheals Pier (west), including passenger gangway and related infrastructure, though the jetty remains (see; Scrapyard to Beatyard report).

Returning to the recent work to the ‘laser’ related linkspan, this has also included removal of the berth’s pontoon, to increase the length of St. Michaels Pier for commercial ships. However, Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company have this berth allocated for the restoration of a seasonal-only Wales ferry service, when this berth is available from 2017. Secondly, should an operator be successfully secured following an E-tender process.

If required, the linkspan can be adapted to suit the operator (if introducing conventional tonnage) as St. Micheals Pier, is the site of an original terminal completed in 1969. The facility was designed for first generation car-ferries, following a temporary terminal on the East Pier's jetty. This is where Dublin Bay Cruises excursion boat St. Bridget berths. 

Over the decades, St. Michael’s double linkspans have asides the harbour’s most famous and familiar last route in operation to Holyhead, have included another second route. That been to Liverpool and in which the service ran until 1990. Predating the Merseyside link, other routes were to Heysham, Lancashire and later Fishguard in Pembrokeshire. 

It was the Earl William, of Sealink British Ferries (in which Stena tookover) that operated the Dun Laoghaire-Liverpool (Bootle Docks) service. SBF took over, following B&I Line's closure in 1988 of the route out of Dublin Port. The service however, only lasted for just two years, as final sailings took place in early 1990.

As an avid ferry enthusiast and having taken a round-trip, it was odd to have a Dun Laoghaire ferry take a passage across Dublin Bay, in that the course set was straight towards Baily Lighthouse on Howth Peninsula and via the North Burford buoy. As distinct to the departure of Holyhead bound ferries that having rounding the East Pier Lighthouse headed for the South Burford buoy off Dalkey Island.

Asides, Earl William, a succession of conventional ferries and freight ferries, have berthed at St. Michaels Pier. The Holyhead’s routes largest and longest serving ferry, St. Columba, that became Stena’s Hibernia / Stena Adventurer exclusively berthed at Carlisle Pier. These ferries would arrive closely together into Dun Laoghaire at dawn, one from England, the other Wales. 

Carlisle Pier, which was had a rail-connected terminal is where the older ‘mailboats’ berthed on both pier sides. On the east berth, is where in recent years, small cruiseships have called alongside, most recently, the impressive sail-assisted Wind Surf.

Currently, only large deep draft cruiseships anchor offshore, however there are controversial plans for a new cruise-berth jetty (awaiting An Bord Pleanala decision). The proposed €18m single-berth facility, if granted planning permission would almost occupy the centre of the harbour.

Against this backdrop is the already granted Dublin Port €30m two-berth cruise terminal.

#Beatyard - The former Stena Line ferryport, Dun Laoghaire, notably this week has been a flurry of activity as St. Michaels Pier has been transformed in readiness for this weekend’s Beatyard, a multi-event attraction, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Heaps of scrap metal from the dismantled terminal was loaded onto trucks equipped with grabbers within the complex compound, where for almost two decades cars, coaches and trucks were marshalled before loading on board or driven off the HSS Stena Explorer. The craft ceased operating Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead crossings in September, 2014, as the operator consolidated services out of neighbouring Dublin Port, however, Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company are in the process of seeking to restore the Welsh route, but not until 2017 and using an adjoining berth.

In this compound area at St. Michaels Pier, event crews have assembled the Beatyard’s music performance stage, accompanied by marquees. Several shipping containers, used to advertise the event are next to the vehicle check-in booths  The visitor attraction is not just about music, but offering a host of events.

The weekend’s Beatyard (July 30-31) is described as everything that’s good and great in the world of food, drink, tech, science, music, games, sports, arts, design and discussion.

Adjoining the Beatyard is the disused ferryport terminal building, which too was custom –built in the mid-1990’s for the introduction of the revolutionary Stena HSS, however retail/office space is currently available to let.

Ironically, the highspeed sea-service (HSS) Stena Explorer fastferry which could of gone likewise for scrap, like her North Channel counterpart, remains up for sale. The 1500 passenger/375 vehicle craft, when sold last year to Turkish  interests, was to be converted in a floating office in Istanbul. In more recent months, this plan has been shelved. 

The process of dismantling and removing Stena associated infrastructure is incomplete, as a remnant of the HSS linkspan-berth remains in situ, supported on a barge that was towed from Stranraer, Scotland. Leading off St. Michaels Pier is the jetty and supporting dolphins that too remain in the harbour, where the HSS Stena Explorer berthed using speciliast satellite technology that involved no mooring ropes but large clamps to wedge the craft into place.

In addition, a pair of concrete pillars remain, that once supported the glazed skywalk (east and west passenger gangways) connecting the HSS are also gone. What's left are these pillars than are visible, notably from the terminal entrance which is lined by the passenger check-in booths.

Above these booths are the terminal’s original marquee-like shade / shelter structures. They are seemingly more apt than ever as they compliment the Beatyard’s range of event marquees.

#ConcernsIncinerator - Concerns have been raised over development of Dublin’s Poolbeg incinerator by US waste firm Covanta, writes The Irish Times, following the failure of emissions tests by a Canadian plant built by the company.

Covanta last May had to close one of the two boilers or “stacks” at its newly built Durham York incinerator near Toronto after emissions exceeded the limits set by the Canadian ministry of environment for dioxins and furans by 13 times.

Dioxins and furans are toxic byproducts that can result from burning waste. For more on the concerns raised click here.

While in Cork Harbour, Minister with Responsibility for Defence as stated operational requirements of the Defence Forces will be reviewed, depending Bord Pleanala’s decision on an application by Indaver to build an incinerator at Ringaskiddy. The proposed site is next to the Naval Service base on Haulbowline Island. 

#DublinBay - New flood defences in Clontarf will be several feet higher than agreed, local residents fear.

As The Irish Times reports, the Clontarf Residents' Association says it was promised by Dublin City Council that new defences constructed as part of the Sutton to Sandycove cycleway would be no higher than the existing wall at the entrance to the Bull Wall bridge.

But it's now claimed that the new poured concrete barrier is much higher – and residents are blaming the council for obfuscating details of the planning documents, which specify flood defences "of 4.25m OD", which equates to the height above sea level.

It marks the latest point of issue in what's been a long-running disagreement between Dublin City Council and Clontarf residents over flood defences for the north Dublin Bay suburb.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

#DredgingConcerns- To attract big cruise ships involving separate proposals, An Taisce say they ‘should be assessed together’

According to The Irish Times, plans by Dublin Port to deepen its navigation channel and dump 10 million tonnes of silt at sea must be considered in conjunction with plans by Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company to dredge a navigation channel that involves dumping in the same area.

An Taisce voiced concern in a submission to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking that the cumulative effects of both dredging and dumping schemes be examined.

Both Dublin Port and Dún Laoghaire are deepening their navigations in rival bids to capture cruise business from larger ships. Dublin Port is also seeking to reconfigure its facilities to create easier access for ferry services.

Both schemes are required to apply for a licence from the EPA to dump in the bay which is in a Unesco biosphere reserve and contains a range of designations under the EU habitats and birds directives.

The newspaper reports on more of the issues of offshore protection and planning permission.