Squatters Ordered Off Stylebawn House Property

Saddle up… Stylebawn TUES13JAN26

e first noticed something might be going on at the vacant 14-acre Stylebawn House on one of our daily walks with our trusty sidekick, Otto.

At the Blackberry Lane entrance to the land that’s been on the market for some time now, a nice young man from Kenmare Heights not known for his community work had voluntarily cleaned up all the rubbish that had been dumped by the gate, adding not only a padlock to the gate but a security camera too.

Which struck us as a major step above and beyond his civic duty.

Greg Kavanagh. Pic: Gerry Mooney

Something that the new owner of the land, Greg Kavanagh, seemed to feel too, having purchased Stylebawn House and its 14 acres in early January for €1.75m.

Luckily for him, as reported in The Irish Independent today, it’s also something that Mr Justice Micheál O’Connell also felt, ruling in the High Court this past week that Tom O’Connor, Killian Elliot and “persons unknown” had to basically get the heck away from the land. And take their ponies with them too.

It’s the latest in the colourful but sad history of this much-loved property, once the proud home of John and Susie Gaisford-St Lawrence, and a major draw for tourists in the 1980s and ’90s when they would regularly open up their sprawling gardens to the public.

Dating from at least 1773 (the man of the house reckoned it dated from the early 16th century), this Delgany home became vacant in 2004, and was quickly snapped up by developer Johnny Ronan, who promptly applied for 11 houses in 2004 and then, in 2009, to replace the original house with a new seven-bedroom house up to three storeys in height. Both plans were rejected.

The December 2016 fire

In 2015, Wicklow County Council were engaging with Ronan’s latest company, RGRE J & R Stylebawn Ltd, about a number of conservation measures that needed to be carried out on the increasingly derelict house.

Stylebawn FRI7MAR26

A year after that, a mysterious fire all but wiped out Stylebawn House. In July 2022, another fire seemed to finish the job.

During all this time, the planning applications just kept on coming, with 99 houses mercifully refused in 2022, and two An Bord Pleanála appeals also being shown the door. Eventually, the property was taken from Ronan by receiver Declan McDonald of PwC in 2023, going back on the market in September 2024.

And now, with the ponies trotting off into the distance, the new Johnny Ronan, the equally-loved Greg Kavanagh, will no doubt be knocking on Wicklow Planning’s door with a whole new estate for Delgany village.

You can go check out the long and grinding road for Stylebawn House here, and get a slice of history from Shay Clear right here.