Malahide Marina

Residential Marina: 

Malahide Boatyard operated for many years on lands at the edge of the Malahide Estuary, until the 1980’s; planning permission was then granted for a low rise residential development. McMullan & Co recognised the potential to develop a large scale residential marina similar to those which had been developed in the South of England and elsewhere in Europe.

Having established the viability of such a project, McMullan & Co secured support & project finance and helped establish a development company to acquire the existing lands and initiate the project.

The critical elements in the establishment of the project were (1) the creation of a quay wall to facilitate the dredging of the estuary and marina basin and (2) finding a solution to the problems of a tidal estuary inlet. McMullan & Co were able to draw on international specialists,with whom they had worked previously, to assess these issues.

The provision of the quay wall and the reclamation resulted in extending the existing land base of c.6 acres by over 10 acres, some of which was provided to the local authority to create a promenade linking the marina development to the existing village and to create a feature public space “The Green”. The profiling and massing of the building development, in the context of Malahide village,was an important factor in the overall design. This was the subject of extensive consultation with the local community and the local authority. It resulted in significantly increasing the height and density compared to what had been approved previously or would have been considered appropriate for Malahide. The subsequent planning application was approved without any objections or appeals.

McMullan & Co carried out the initial assessment and financial appraisals, involved the appropriate specialists, prepared the master plan plus managed the site studies, the design and statutory approval process and led the discussions with the Department of Marine.