Journal Volume 1 1992

My townland: Its History and Archaeology (continued/6)

As we moved into the 20th century the whole area of Greystones continued to expand. The La Touche Estate was completed in the decade just before the turn of the century and the development of the Whitshed/Burnaby estate began. Over the years, the population of Kindlestown Upper has remained fairly stable. There was a small housing development built opposite St. Kilian's church in the mid 1970's. But the site of the ruined 13th century Kindlestown Castle is due for development in the near future. The owner of the 11 acre field in which the castle stands, has permission to build 11 luxury houses there. It is imperative that sufficient and stringent archaeological conditions should be attached to the granting of planning permissions for such sites and that proper excavations should take place first.

The population of Kindlestown Lower has increased enormously since 1900 with several new housing developments covering the previously open fields. Kindlestown cottages were built in the 1930's, Grattan Park in the late 1940's. Kindlestown Park was built in the 1970's, as were Beechbrook, Applewood Heights and Bellevue Heights. Kenmare Heights was built in the 1980's.

In his book Greystones 1864 - 1964 Mr. Samuel French is mildly concerned about the ‘modem bungalows’ being built in the Burnaby and ‘hoped that further development would not detract from the present peaceful residential atmosphere.’ ‘Further development’ is still going ahead full steam, and we must all be concerned that it does not do so at the expense of our heritage.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Catherine Ward for the research done in the National Archives and her help with this project. We would also like to thank our teacher Mrs. Mary Cotter for her support and encouragement.