Kilnaboy

Kilnaboy

Location and Context

Kilnaboy, set in a landscape rich in heritage and natural beauty close to the famous Mullaghmore Mountain and Poulnabrone Dolmen, is an attractive place to live. Kilnaboy is located between Corofin and Kilfenora on the R476 on the edge of the Burren. The village has a church, a school and an all-weather astro turf facility, which serve the surrounding community. There has been limited development in the village in recent years comprising a single dwelling with a second permitted.

Kilnaboy is served by a group water scheme. There is no wastewater treatment infrastructure in this settlement. Any future residential development including alterations to existing residential developments, commercial or employment generating development will require private wastewater treatment. This will be subject to suitable site-specific conditions and must ensure they comply with the EPA Code of Practice for ‘On Site Wastewater Treatment Systems’ and can fully demonstrate no adverse effects on the receiving environment, water courses or adjacent ecological designations.

Kilnaboy is located adjacent to East Burren Complex Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Future development must ensure there are no adverse affects on the SAC’s site integrity, or the integrity of any other European site as a result of the proposed development. Accordingly, objectives set out in Volume 1 of this Plan, relating European sites and to appropriate assessment will apply to any future development proposals in this area. The Natura Impact Report accompanying this Plan (Volume 10a) provides relevant mitigation measures and recommendations at site and project level.

General Objective

• To ensure that future growth in Kilnaboy is incremental, relative and appropriate to the scale and character of the village.

Employment and Enterprise

Agricultural plays a key role in the sustainable management of the Burren to which Kilnaboy is proximate. In order to support economic development, the Council will facilitate and encourage farm enterprise and Agri-tourism in Kilnaboy as well as supporting home based economic activity where feasible.

Tourism

Kilnaboy is well positioned in close proximity to the Burren to offer a high-quality year-round tourism product to visitors of the Burren. It is an objective of the Plan:

__________________________________________________________________________________ Draft Clare County Development Plan 2023-2029

• To support tourism related developments in the village that benefit the village itself and the wider Burren area.

Strategy for Growth and Sustainable Communities

The strategy for the sustainable growth of the village and its community is through consolidation and regeneration that promotes compact sequential growth and supports and strengthens a sustainable village community and its rural hinterland. This will be achieved by encouraging small scale growth in areas which make a positive contribution to the overall enhancement of the village and sustains it into the future. In line with this approach and to promote vibrant rural villages, village growth areas have been identified which provide opportunities and choice for development, including small scale commercial, enterprise, community, services/facilities as well as small scale cluster housing, all of which offers a viable and attractive option for rural living within a village community and setting.

Proposed developments should also take cognisance of their associated Landscape Character Areas (LCA) Kilfenora Farmland and the Low Burren LCA and should be planned and developed in a sympathetic manner with the surrounding prospects and views. Any mature hedgerows located on areas identified for village growth should be retained as part of any future development given the importance of this area to a variety of bat species, in particular the Lesser Horseshoe bat, and also in terms of biodiversity.

__________________________________________________________________________________ Draft Clare County Development Plan 2023-2029