{"id":426817,"date":"2026-05-01T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426817\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:56:09","slug":"state-urged-to-buy-sandymount-martello-tower-with-guide-price-of-e1-5-million-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426817\/","title":{"rendered":"State urged to buy Sandymount Martello tower with guide price of \u20ac1.5 million \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government has been urged to buy the Martello tower on Sandymount Strand<\/a> in Dublin, which has gone on sale with a guide price of \u20ac1.5 million.<\/p>\n

Local Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan<\/a> said it is a \u201cnational monument\u201d as he expressed concern about its ability to serve the community if it was sold into private hands.<\/p>\n

The early 19th century tower, number 16, was one of 28 positioned around Dublin Bay as part of a coastal defence against invasion by France<\/a> during the Napoleonic Wars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The owner had put in a planning application for a cafe 25 years ago, but \u201cfor whatever reason it didn\u2019t work out\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dublin Bay South TD and former councillor said people would constantly ask if there was anything he could do about the tower on the promenade.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople haven\u2019t had access to the inside of it for decades, and people who\u2019ve lived in that community long enough remember a time where there was actually a cafe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Raising the issue in the D\u00e1il on Thursday, Geoghegan pointed to the Sandycove Martello tower which operates successfully as the James Joyce Museum<\/a> and is managed by D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said there was an \u201cenormous opportunity\u201d to create a history tour linking all the Martello towers. \u201cIt could become an iconic destination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sandymount Strand is visited by hundreds of people on a daily basis, Geoghegan said. \u201cIt\u2019s an oasis on our Dublin Bay. It\u2019s a Unesco biosphere. It\u2019s something that the whole of Dublin is proud of and enjoys and frequents.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sinn F\u00e9in urges Senator accused of blackmailing former State fisheries official to assist Garda investigationOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Geoghegan said he believed there had been some \u201cpreliminary engagement\u201d by Dublin City Council<\/a> with the seller.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the State and the local authority could work together so that you could have a cafe on site that would build up the revenue,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd whatever the capital costs might be right now, it would wash its face in a very short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister of State Emer Higgins<\/a> said the Office of Public Works (OPW), which has responsibility for the care and management of 180 State buildings, has no plans to buy the tower.<\/p>\n

However, she said, \u201cThe OPW is standing ready to engage constructively with relevant stakeholders, where appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higgins said the \u201ccontinuing engagement with Dublin City Council is very positive\u201d, and D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council\u2019s management of the Sandycove tower \u201cdemonstrates that where appropriate such structures can be preserved and can be repurposed through collaborative arrangements at local authority level\u201d.<\/p>\n

Estate agent Colliers director Mervyn Ellis confirmed the guide price of \u20ac1.5 million. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of due diligence required in terms of bringing the building back to life,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s a large building, 6,500 square feet (603.8 sq metres),\u201d with a great location and history. \u201cIt\u2019s an iconic property so we have received a response that it merits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has been urged to buy the Martello tower on Sandymount Strand in Dublin, which has gone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":["post-426817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}