Eco-friendly tourist resort planned for Hodson Bay area

An eco-friendly tourist resort that would include 36 cabins on stilts is being proposed at Hodson Bay in Athlone.

The project, which aims to become one of the country's top eco-tourism attractions, was first mooted in 2021, and a planning application for it is due to be lodged with Roscommon County Council shortly.

It would be situated at Yew Point, Hodson Bay, in the townland of Barrymore.

The development would include 12 family cabins and 24 two-person cabins, which would be "raised on stilts above ground levels, to conserve existing ground conditions and preserve through routes for movement of wildlife".

New Island Resorts Limited, which has Hodson Bay Group chairman John O’Sullivan as a director, is behind the proposed development.

A planning notice states that the resort would be “a low density visitor destination, which is low carbon in terms of materials proposed and in operation through the use of renewable energy sources”.

It would have “minimal environmental impact” and would be “readily reversible”.

In addition to the accommodation cabins, an “Environmental Induction Area” is proposed, in order to “facilitate the immersion of guests in environmental topics and the principles of fully sustainable living, and inform them, specifically, on the ecology and biodiversity of the Yew Point/Lough Ree area”.

There are also plans for four “timber guest shelters” across the site, as well as a covered shelter “to facilitate the charging and storing of electric golf buggies”.

Work to regenerate “the former woodland areas towards the centre of the Yew Point peninsula,” which are now “largely depleted following generations of agricultural activity” are planned, and would include “the extensive planting of native tree species”.

Vehicular access to the site would be through a “slatted timber entrance gate structure” and there would be 48 car parking spaces, including ten electric vehicle charging spaces, in a reinforced “grass-crete” surfaced car park.

“Conservation and protection of all existing woodland areas and the natural environment” is “a fundamental objective of the development,” the planning notice states.

An existing 50mm watermain from the Hodson Bay Hotel is due to be upgraded to a 100mm watermain, approximately 550m in length, in order to service the proposed development.

A Natura Impact Statement is to be submitted along with the planning application when it is lodged.