Blessington

hi all,we are thinking in moving out of dublin city soon.we have narrowed our interested locations to Blessington,greystones,rush,naas,sallins,newbridge.(not exactly narrowing i know!!)g/friend works in harolds cross and me bluebell.Issues would be house prices and journey(transport)to work etcwe have a car but for me i think train,then luas would be better...anyone have any thoughts and advice?..cheers??

Well, if you're both working Harold's Cross/Bluebell, then I would steer clear of Rush. I'd settle down oover the other side of the city and save yourself a lot of headaches.

A friend of mine recently moved down to Blessington with his gf and they love it. Not too far, not too near, nice village life. And houses are a little cheaper too.

ButtermilkJa said:

Well, if you're both working Harold's Cross/Bluebell, then I would steer clear of Rush.

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Yeah i agree..rush is way too far..nightmare commute to where you both work!House prices are reasonable and it is a nice village but id going for the blessington option too!

Blessington has the worst road connection of your options to Dublin. Stupid as it sounds, I would strongly recommend trying the journey in the morning. Naas has more to offer with shopping/ social life/ facilities and a better connection to Dublin. The roads would also be very busy in the morning but move a lot better. City West business park causes a lot of the problems on the Blessington route.

Hi,

Welcome to AAM.

You might find something useful in these previous threads on Blessington and Naas.

One thought that springs to mind for yourself that the train and Luas each day would be expensive enough? If you have a car it would probably be more economical for her to drop you off and then continue on to Harold's Cross which is not that far away.

In winter time the journeys both from Naas and Blessington would be heavy going. IMHO Greystones and Rush are definitely out of the equation.

What about Clane?

5 miles from Naas and all it's amenities
5 mins from Sallins train to Heuston. (LUAS)
10 mins from Maynooth train to Connolly (DART)
50 mins bus journey in the morning to St Stephens Green (LUAS)

AND, houses cheaper than Naas and Sallins!

I kinda stumbled upon the place by accident when looking a year ago and I couldn't have made a better decision!

thanks everybody for replying.

Yes we have a car and have thought of the dropping me off at bluebell situation..this would make sense coming from sallins,clane and naas as would be driving down the m7/n7 but isnt traffic a nightmare from green isle to newlands cross and vice versa at peak times?

However i see they are redoing the mad cow roundabout and heard they are getting rid of the traffic lights along the way up from the long mile road up to it. We went to naas at rush hour by car a while ago and we were a half an hour getting from the long mile road intersection to the roundabout..after that it was fine.

Hasnt greystones got a dart service? That would be handy to just get into town then get luas to bluebell from connally.We arnt really up on the blessington route yet..sounds worrying about the city west situation tho.

However a workmate of my g/friend travels to and from saggart everyday using the blessington/tallaght route and says its not too bad.anyone travel on the n 81 regular? I could always get the bus into town from blessington and then luas or get dropped off by car then luas from tallaght..options options!i guess we want the most hassle free/less time to get to work scenario..

hey there,

just noticed this thread. I live about 5 miles past blessington and use the N81 every day. I work in citywest and I find the traffic fantastic most days. I can get to the naas road no problem any morning. the traffic would only start if you are heading into tallaght (square direction) or as soon as you get to newlands cross etc on the naas road. My husband works in inchicore and commutes most days.
the odd day you will meet traffic coming into saggart village if its raining hard etc but nothing major.

Luas is a great option from Tallaght as it is reliable and you know how long it takes. Bluebell to Tallaght is about 25 minutes. In the morning, I would generally allow 40 minutes from Blessington to The Square in the car.

On the rant side, if they straightened out and widened the road from teh Square up to CityWest, all the pain in the evening would be virtually gone.

From the perspective of living in Blessington, it depends what floats your boat. There is plenty of sport - very active athletics, GAA, soccer, sailing club etc. I think the nightlife situation is poor.

ontour said:

On the rant side, if they straightened out and widened the road from teh Square up to CityWest, all the pain in the evening would be virtually gone.

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The most frustrating thing is that South Dublin County Council have FULL planning permission to do exactly that but have put it off (i.e. it'll never happen) while they look for money from the NRA. Have a look [broken link removed]. Of course this is the typical Irish attitude: put off building it today, everyone suffers in the meantime and it costs twice as much when they do build it...

I lived in Blessington for 5 years untill quite recently. One majour question mark hangs over the town. Illegally dumpet waste. I moved out because eventually the illegal dumps located right beside the town will have an impact on peoples health. Their presence doesn't seem to be effecting peoples decisions to live in the town but at some point they will. I would not like to own property there when the tide does change and ill health associated with living in close proximity to hundreds of thousands of tonnes of who knows what type of waste comes home to roost.

If you can look past that though it is an ok place to live.

As regards the waste, there is one housing estate that is within metres of the dump and I think that there may be a health issue there.

Apart from that, they waste has been identified and has to be dealt with in accordance with strict EPA guideline. There are dumps all around the country and if correctly managed there is no issue with being in reasonable proximity.

Also - the Luas will be in Citywest by 2008 (if you believe the sign), which makes it handy for Blessington or Naas. As for the Newlands Cross etc, if you arrive there between 7.30 and 9.30, then the traffic will be bad, but you can be in Harolds Cross quite quickly if you arrive before that time.

these dumps were illegal, they were / are not correctly engineered with linings in place to stop leaching into the ground of the waste materials as they decompose.

These dumps are not being correctly managed. Putting a fence around it and a few vents to allow methane out is not managing.

The dumps were identified years ago at this stage - do "strict EPA guidelines" include letting waste sit for prolonged periods of time (years as I have mentioned) within a town boundary, near houses and schools?

thanks everyone..yea the luas sounds good in citywest.im worried about all this illegal dumping in blessington lark..id really like to know the ins and out of it...the truth for etc..not propaganda...cheers.

I recently ( year ago) left Blessington after 3 years living there. Main reasons for leavng was the illegal dumping, quality of water was dreadful (also the water hardness crippled any appliance that used it) My toddlers had no school to go to with influx of people and the village is choked with traffic all day. However maybe things have changed since.
But there are good things ( personable, countryside, easy access to dublin..)

funny to see different views on blessington. I have never ever had problems with traffic and I work normal hours five days a week. true at rush hour there is a tail back but you can just take red lane... as for "all day long", sorry but you must be joking.

as for schools for toddlers, I have two and there is no issue at all get them into several schools.

I can't comment about the illegal dumping I'm afraid, that could be true but I live outside the village and to be honest haven't heard a dickybird about it since I've been living there the last 6 years. Maybe if you're in the village its an issue alright.

another downside to be aware of, and this was mentioned, is the nightlife. there isn't that much i'm afraid. there are a few pubs, the most popular being the west wicklow... but yeah, no nightclubs etc if thats what you're after. Not a million restaurants either, something I would like to see more of.

anyway, hope thats of help. to get a real feel for a place, you gotta stay there. why not rent a house for a weekend in ard ri and go for a drink locally. see if it fits. make it a long weekend and see the traffic too...

I have lived in Blessington for 15 + years and re the dump at roadstone it is more likley to affect the aquafer than the lake also a very senior member of An Taisce lives in the town and the fear of pollution has not caused him to move. The "fur" on kettles etc is not from the pollution but the hardness of the water as Blessington is in a very hard water area. I work on Fitzwilliam Square in D2 and it takes about an 1 1/2 hours to get in but only about 1/2 an hour or 45 mins to get to Drimnagh. The town has a nice village feel but with lots of Dublin people living in it. I am buying a new house soon and will stay in Blessington as it is such a relief every evening to leave Dublin behind. At the weekends you have the lake and mountains on your doorstep. There is a major development taking place in Blessington and you should check it out the town will have so much more to offer in the next few years. If you have kids a new senior school for 2nd class up will open monday and there is a great new libary, playground and soft play place. Every area has its problems but in my opinion Blessington has more good things going for it.