New Killeen Castle hotel plan lodged

Plans for a major hotel development at Killeen Castle have been revived with the lodging of a planning application with Meath County Council this week.
Sasula Unlimited is applying for a 177-bedroom hotel at the Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course in Dunsany. 
The economic crash put paid to earlier plans to develop the castle as a hotel, and the 12th century building was mothballed after careful restoration work. 
The previous planning, granted in 2002, allowed for a 202-bedroom international five-star hotel, consisting of 166 hotel rooms, 25 hotel suites, eight castle suites and three castle guestrooms.
The development of an 18-hole championship golf course and clubhouse went ahead and opened in 2009, hosting three ladies Irish opens and the 2011 Solheim  Cup, and part of the residential element was built, but the hotel aspect remained at a standstill as the recession kicked in. 
Now Joe O’Reilly and John Fitzsimons, two directors of the original Castlethorn development company, are seeking a new hotel permission.
The application is for a hotel with 177 bedrooms, including the renovation and internal restoration of Killeen Castle, together with a new build linked element.  
It seeks the reinstatement of the ground floor principal rooms lost to fire in 1981; the conservation, repair and restoration of ground floor rooms that partially survived the fire; the reinstatement or provision of new rooms with suitable period interiors; and the change of use of the castle to hotel to provide 17 hotel suites, and a bar, dining and tasting facilities.
A new-build over one to three storeys over part basement proposes to contain 160 hotel suites, a day spa facility with pool, a winter garden restaurant, a function and pre-function area. 
Some 95 car parking spaces are planned, as well as a bat roost on the roof of the castle.
Killeen Castle is the ancestral home of the Plunkett family, Earls of Fingall, and was occupied by them until 1951, when the last Earl, Oliver James, sold it. In 1981, it was destroyed by fire when attacked by republicans during the Hunger Strikes, and has remained empty ever since, living up to Daisy Fingall’s prediction in the 1930s that the rooks would be left to fly through its ruined turrets.