Funds set aside towards preserving Oil Mills site

Funding is to be set aside to work towards preserving the Fairview Oil Mills site in Clondalkin in the coming years.

Funding for the preservation project is to be made part of the local authority’s 2026 Capital budget.

The money set aside will be used to build upon work already conducted at the site in Corkagh Park this year.

Councillor Francis Timmons welcomed the funding and urged South Dublin County Council to bring the site back into public use.

Cllr Timmons said: SDCC has done some work but a long-term plan is needed.”

“An appraisal of the site by the National Built Heritage Service found [that], ‘although ruinous, the walls stand proud of the tree line, have an attractive quality and impose an historic character onto the surrounding parkland’…

“…Fairview Oil Mills is included on the National Inventory of Archaeological Heritage. We must ensure our heritage is preserved and not destroyed.”

Another site in Clondalkin has seen work done to ensure it is preserved as a heritage site.

The St Cuthbert’s Church ruins in Clondalkin are set to be opened up to the public as part of the local park’s upgrade programme.

The ruins of the church which rest in St Cuthbert’s Park will be able to be seen by the public as part of the long-awaited upgrades to the park – a seven-figure sum has been pumped into the project.

Works at the park have seen delays due to anti-social behaviour in the area and have been in the pipeline for several years.

Archaeological impact and structural condition surveys are set to be carried out on the site, with the vegetation clearance that is set to allow the public to view it a necessary step.

The clearance of vegetation will allow for the structural condition survey of the church and its graveyard to take place.

South Dublin County Council noted that the protection and enhancement of the church, the graveyard and the moated site formed an integral part of the upgrade proposals for the park.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.