Conor McGregor lodges appeal after Council refusal of Kildare mansion with pools and cinema

Gordon Deegan

MMA fighter Conor McGregor is contesting Kildare County Council’s planning refusal to his plan to construct a sprawling mansion complete with two pools, a cinema, and a bar.

This follows An Bord Pleanála confirming that it has received a first-party appeal from Mr McGregor against the Council’s comprehensive planning refusal last month for the new home at The Paddocks and No.5, Castledillon, Lower Straffan, Co Kildare.

McGregor’s applied to demolish his existing five-bedroom home and replace it with 32,693 sq ft six-bedroomed ‘family home’ - which is 27 times the floor size of an average 1,200 sq ft semi-detached home.

The council issued its refusal after McGregor refused to reduce the scale of his planned home.

Council planners rejected the planned McGregor ‘family home’ after concluding that the scheme was 'excessive' and 'visually incongruous’.

Kildare Council determined that the ‘family home’ plan “would seriously injure the visual and character amenities of the area and be contrary to County Development Plan and Objectives”.

In its refusal, the Council concluded that the planned home “would lead to an undesirable precedent for similar type developments”.

The Council also refused planning to the home as “its excessive bulk, scale and mass - outside of the original footprint of the existing dwelling - would result in the dwelling appearing visually incongruous”.

The McGregor plan comprises a two storey over basement house complete with a 19.6m indoor swimming pool, a 21 metre outdoor swimming pool and a cinema.

The ambitious plan also included a fully sunken basement to include car-parking, a bar, games area, ancillary rooms.

The local authority also refused planning permission as the creation of a new access “would result in an intensification of traffic movement at this rural location and the proposed development would endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard or obstruction to road users”.

An accompanying 14 page planner’s report signed off by three Council planners recommended a refusal after stating that McGregor’s failure to revise the original proposal was ‘unsatisfactory’.

The report states: “As such, the proposal is recommended for refusal on this basis."

Last July, the Council told McGregor that the design and scale of the proposed home due to its length, massing and scale did not comply with the Kildare County Development Plan and requested him to submit revised plans to account of the County Development Plan.

Instead, a submission lodged on behalf of McGregor last month contained no revised proposals and instead stated that the subject site “has the capacity to comfortably absorb the proposed dwelling without resulting in any undue impacts of dis-amenity to surrounding residents”.

The Council planning report concluded that the McGregor scheme “would have a negative impact on its highly sensitive location”.

The planning report stated that the applicant sought to demolish an existing home “without any engineering reports justifying the need for the demolition”.

The planners stated that the application would need to comply with the Council’s Local Needs policies “and there is no indication that the applicant complies with these policies”.

McGregor paid out €3 million for The Paddocks in 2019 and planning documentation shows that McGregor’s staff were to be housed in a nearby home at No 5 Castledillon “which is now also in the full ownership of the applicant”.

Records with the Residential Property Price Register show that No 5 Castledillon was purchased for €1.65 million in June 2022.

The purchasing of the neighbouring No 5 Castledillon increased McGregor’s landholding from 5.8 acres to 10 acres.

McGregor previously secured planning permission to partly demolish, extend and renovate The Paddocks.

However, Tyler Owens Architects told the council that having started the process of demolition back in 2022, it became apparent that the existing quality of construction of the remainder of the house, along with the client’s changing needs, indicated that the works would not make sense.

This resulted in the planning application for the complete demolition of the Paddocks and replacing it with a new family home.

It added that it balances modern architectural innovation with respect for local elements, offering a dwelling that complements its setting while addressing future need.

In November in the High Court, a jury found against McGregor in a civil rape case taken by Nikita Hand.

The Dublin woman was awarded nearly €250,000 in damages after the jury found that she was raped by McGregor in the Dublin hotel in December 2018 and McGregor also faces paying the bulk of the legal costs estimated at more than €1 million associated with the case.