Digital specialist, architectural designer, best-selling author, artist, and AI & BIM/GIS expert | https://nitter.cf/t.co/1Q1mcZ3ujK Email: [email protected]
Ireland
Joined May 2013
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My derelictsites.com/ website has just gone live.🏚️⚡️🎉
I've created a data-led project focused on vacancy and dereliction in Ireland as part of the wider housing and town-centre crisis.
This regeneration project examines the scale and impact of derelict and long-term vacant properties. The public-facing landing page at derelictsites.com/ reviews derelict sites currently on the register across five local authorities—Cork County Council, Cork City Council, Dublin City Council, Limerick City & County Council, and Mayo County Council. I've built a digital database to increase transparency and visually identify dereliction hotspots across each county. This map-based public register tracks locations, enforcement steps, and estimated values. It includes photos of derelict sites and Google Street View links to make the records easier to understand. I've also included useful links and available grants explaining the Derelict Sites Process Workflow.
This is a public-facing landing page for draft demonstrations built by me. It provides an overview and links to each register and supporting information. This is a demonstration platform and portfolio project that shows how statutory register data can be structured for public transparency and internal decision support.
This website is a regeneration-focused initiative documenting and analysing derelict and long-term vacant property in Ireland. Built as a structured, evidence-led platform, it converts fragmented statutory registers into a clear, map-based resource revealing the scale, geography, and real-world impacts of vacancy, underuse, and town centre decline.
The project does more than highlight dereliction as a problem. By combining clean, structured data, mapping, and accessible communication, it helps local authorities, practitioners, and the public understand where dereliction is concentrated, what stage cases are at, and what opportunities exist for regeneration.
Through developing this platform, I am building practical expertise in vacancy classification, data cleaning and standardisation (including address and Eircode quality), mapping and visualisation, and stakeholder-focused reporting. My goal is to contribute to a local authority or housing regeneration teams working on Town Centre First delivery, vacant homes activation, and sustainable reuse strategies—bringing a strong digital and data-led approach to real-world implementation.
🔮 Future plans:
Expand coverage: Add more local authority registers while maintaining a consistent structure and terminology. Include vacant sites in the register database.
Improve data quality: Standardise addresses, add Eircodes where missing, and document a repeatable QA workflow.
Richer enforcement timelines: Track key statutory stages and dates more consistently, so progress and delays are visible.
Better analytics: Add district and town breakdowns, CPO numbers, trend views such as dereliction clusters, and "time on register" metrics to highlight long-standing cases.
Case studies: Include short, evidence-based examples of successful reuse (before/after, costs, barriers, outcomes).
Decision-support outputs: Create exportable reports and summaries that support internal briefings and member queries.
For collaboration, feedback, or demonstration requests, please get in touch.
Regards
Rob Cross
Bringing Dalymount's History to Life 🏗️💡🇮🇪
I’ve just heard that the iconic floodlights at Dalymount Park in Phibsborough, Dublin, which have dominated the local skyline for over six decades as the home ground of Bohemian FC, are coming down tomorrow.
Manufacturing and installation (1961): The 38-metre-tall (125 ft) pylons were ordered from the Edinburgh engineering firm Miller & Stables, which also supplied floodlights to stadiums such as Hampden Park and Windsor Park. The contract, including transport and installation, cost around £17,000–£20,000.
Inaugural match (1962): The lights were officially switched on for a high-profile match against English giants Arsenal.
In the attached 1963 photo, Ireland faced Austria in the first round, second leg of the UEFA European Championship at Dalymount Park. Refereed by Einar Poulsen, the match drew 39,963 spectators. Ireland won 3–2 on aggregate to advance to the next round. In the background, a line of fans perched on an advertising sign catches the light, like birds on a telephone wire.
#WeAreBohs #Dublin #Ireland #History #TheColourOfIreland
Back On Track 🚂
Great to see a train arriving at the Foynes Train Station.
Bringing Ireland's Past to Life 🇮🇪🇺🇸🚂⛵️🌳🪚
My coloured and restored c. 1910 Robert French photo of Foynes Harbour and Railway Terminus in County Limerick. Foynes railway station opened on April 29, 1858, as the terminus of a line from Limerick City. The station closed to passengers on February 4, 1963, but remained open for freight traffic until October 30, 2000. It will be reopened to freight traffic in 2026, with potential for passenger service in the future. Notably, Foynes was the last port of call for the Evelyn steamer, which transported uniforms from the Limerick Clothing Factory to the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, 1861 – 1865. On the right-hand side stands Monteagle Mills, which sourced timber from Russia and Scandinavia during the 19th century.
#TheColourofIreland #Limerick #Ireland #Railways
Discover Ireland’s Railway Past, Present and Future! 🚂
I created this interactive map to explore Ireland’s railway and tram lines, past and present, as well as future projects such as the Dublin MetroLink and the proposed Luas lines for Cork and Finglas.
Search for routes or stations and travel through time with the Year Explorer.
derelictsites.com/Ireland-s-…
#History #IrishRail #Trams #RailwayHistory #MetroLink #Luas #TheColourOfIreland
Once our heritage is gone, it is gone forever.
My graphic shows the decline of this beautiful Tara Post Office at Ross Crossroads, Ross, County Meath: a whitewashed rendered building with a thatched roof, built in 1820. The decline followed the local authority’s failure to serve the owner/occupier with a notice specifying the work needed to prevent the structure from becoming endangered.
Below is a webpage I built to highlight dereliction in Ireland, propose solutions, and showcase heritage buildings and structures at risk. The page includes quick facts, a summary, history and ownership, a dated photographic decline log, planning/enforcement history, vacancy/dereliction signals, reuse potential, recommended next actions, open questions, and sources.
90162 - Tara Post Office at Ross Crossroads, Ross, Co. Meath. MH038-101 (Deleted from the Meath RPS)
derelictsites.com/90162-Tara…
Reporting a Protected Structure at Risk — How to Write to Your Local Authority
derelictsites.com/Reporting-…
#Meath #Ireland #DerelictIreland #History #Heritage #HeritageAtRisk #BuiltHeritage #HeritageConservation
For those interested, I’ve just updated the Mayo County Council derelict sites on my DerelictSites website.
20.0 Mayo County Council — Derelict Site Register
derelictsites.com/20-0-Mayo-…
At a glance:
📌 Total sites in September 2026: 319
📝 Sites with a Section 8(7) date recorded: 316
💰 Total unambiguous market value: €19,765,000
🕰️ Earliest recorded Section 8(7) date: DS16/14 - Church Street, Crossmolina — issued 12 July 1991 (≈ 35.3 elapsed years as of 28 October 2026)
🗓️ Average elapsed years since Section 8(7): 5.01
It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month.
#Mayo #Ireland #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland
Bringing Ireland's Past to Life 🇮🇪🇺🇸🚂⛵️🌳🪚
My coloured and restored c. 1910 Robert French photo of Foynes Harbour and Railway Terminus in County Limerick. Foynes railway station opened on April 29, 1858, as the terminus of a line from Limerick City. The station closed to passengers on February 4, 1963, but remained open for freight traffic until October 30, 2000. It will be reopened to freight traffic in 2026, with potential for passenger service in the future. Notably, Foynes was the last port of call for the Evelyn steamer, which transported uniforms from the Limerick Clothing Factory to the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, 1861 – 1865. On the right-hand side stands Monteagle Mills, which sourced timber from Russia and Scandinavia during the 19th century.
#TheColourofIreland #Limerick #Ireland #Railways
Rob Cross retweeted
Another brilliant bit of work.
For those interested, I’ve just updated the Dublin City Council derelict sites on my DerelictSites website.
7.0 Dublin City Council — Derelict Site Register
derelictsites.com/7-0-Dublin…
📌 Total sites on latest PDF: 149
➕ Added in latest PDF (new to this database): 10
➖ Removed from latest PDF (historical records absent): 21 — 3 newly absent since August; 18 already absent.
💰 Total recorded market value: €52,942,000
✅ Sites with valuation: 111
❔ Sites with no valuation: 38
🧾 Total illustrative 7% levy estimate (from number column): €10,963,120 (across 119 populated records), excluding interest; not a verified outstanding debt figure.
🕰️ Oldest recorded entry among current sites: DS250 — Harold's Cross Road, 144, Dublin 6W — entered 8 June 2007 (≈ 19.4 years as of 27 October 2026)
🗓️ Average years on register: 4.5 (across 126 current sites with recorded entry dates; 23 without dates excluded)
🗓️ Average months on register: 53.5
📆 Average weeks on register: 232.6
It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month.
#Dublin #Ireland #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland
For those interested, I’ve just updated the Dublin City Council derelict sites on my DerelictSites website.
7.0 Dublin City Council — Derelict Site Register
derelictsites.com/7-0-Dublin…
📌 Total sites on latest PDF: 149
➕ Added in latest PDF (new to this database): 10
➖ Removed from latest PDF (historical records absent): 21 — 3 newly absent since August; 18 already absent.
💰 Total recorded market value: €52,942,000
✅ Sites with valuation: 111
❔ Sites with no valuation: 38
🧾 Total illustrative 7% levy estimate (from number column): €10,963,120 (across 119 populated records), excluding interest; not a verified outstanding debt figure.
🕰️ Oldest recorded entry among current sites: DS250 — Harold's Cross Road, 144, Dublin 6W — entered 8 June 2007 (≈ 19.4 years as of 27 October 2026)
🗓️ Average years on register: 4.5 (across 126 current sites with recorded entry dates; 23 without dates excluded)
🗓️ Average months on register: 53.5
📆 Average weeks on register: 232.6
It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month.
#Dublin #Ireland #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland
For those interested, I’ve just updated the Cork City Council derelict sites on my DerelictSites website.
5.0 Cork City Council — Derelict Site Register
derelictsites.com/5-0-Cork-C…
📌 Sites on the current register: 147
🆕 Added in latest PDF: 5
💰 Recorded market value — current register: €42,055,230
✅ Current sites with valuation: 137
❔ Current sites with no valuation: 10
🧾 Recorded/estimated levy — current register (existing number column): €12,798,745, rounded to whole euros and excluding interest.
It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month.
#Cork #Ireland #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland
It’s so frustrating to see how dysfunctional Ireland has become when this could be resolved with the genuine political will to make a change for the common good, rather than to serve vested interests.
In my visualisation, red blocks represent some of the Derelict and Vacant Sites in Cork City.
5.0 Cork City Council — Derelict Site Register
derelictsites.com/5-0-Cork-C…
📌 Sites on the current register: 147
🆕 Added in latest PDF: 5
➖ Removed from latest PDF: 11 — retained as history; absence alone does not establish why a site was removed.
💰 Recorded market value — current register: €42,055,230
✅ Current sites with valuation: 137
❔ Current sites with no valuation: 10
🧾 Recorded/estimated levy — current register (existing number column): €12,798,745, rounded to whole euros and excluding interest.
It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month.
#HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland #VacantIreland #Cork #Ireland
It’s so frustrating to see how dysfunctional Ireland has become when this could be resolved with the genuine political will to make a change for the common good, rather than to serve vested interests.
In my visualisation, red blocks represent some of the Derelict and Vacant Sites in Cork City.
5.0 Cork City Council — Derelict Site Register
derelictsites.com/5-0-Cork-C…
📌 Sites on the current register: 147
🆕 Added in latest PDF: 5
➖ Removed from latest PDF: 11 — retained as history; absence alone does not establish why a site was removed.
💰 Recorded market value — current register: €42,055,230
✅ Current sites with valuation: 137
❔ Current sites with no valuation: 10
🧾 Recorded/estimated levy — current register (existing number column): €12,798,745, rounded to whole euros and excluding interest.
It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month.
#HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland #VacantIreland #Cork #Ireland
For those interested, I’ve just updated the Cork City Council derelict sites on my DerelictSites website.
5.0 Cork City Council — Derelict Site Register
derelictsites.com/5-0-Cork-C…
📌 Sites on the current register: 147
🆕 Added in latest PDF: 5
💰 Recorded market value — current register: €42,055,230
✅ Current sites with valuation: 137
❔ Current sites with no valuation: 10
🧾 Recorded/estimated levy — current register (existing number column): €12,798,745, rounded to whole euros and excluding interest.
It's worth noting that the latest homelessness figures, at 17,885, include 5,830 children (a record high) and represent a 9.3 per cent increase in a year and a rise of 358 in a month.
#Cork #Ireland #HousingCrisis #DerelictIreland
Thanks to IPAV for the honour of addressing a packed audience of around 600 at Croke Park in Dublin for the European Valuation Conference & Trade Expo 2026. It was a pleasure to showcase how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Artificial intelligence (AI) can help tackle vacancy and dereliction, and highlight heritage buildings at risk across Ireland.
#ipav #DerelictIreland #HeritageAtRisk
The destruction of Dublin
This north-facing 1934 aerial photograph of Dublin City has been colourised and annotated in red to highlight buildings and structures that were later demolished. It shows the red-brick chimney stacks of the former W. & R. Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, as well as St Peter’s Church on Aungier Street, which was demolished in 1983. Molyneux House, built on Peter Street in 1711, was demolished in 1943. The image also reveals the extent of demolition west of St Stephen’s Green. The Dandelion Market on South King Street was demolished in 1986 to make way for St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, while the entire Georgian terrace on York Street, including the Salvation Army Hostel (formerly the Congregational Church), was also demolished.
#Dublin #Ireland #History #Heritage #HeritageAtRisk #TheColourOfIreland
The destruction of Dublin built heritage since 1934.
This north-facing aerial photograph of Dublin City has been colourised and annotated in red to highlight buildings and structures that were later demolished. It shows the red-brick chimney stacks of the former W. & R. Jacob’s Biscuit Factory and St Peter’s Church on Aungier Street, which was demolished in 1983. It also reveals the extent of demolition west of St Stephen’s Green: the Dandelion Market on South King Street was demolished in 1986 to make way for the St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, and the entire Georgian terrace on York Street was demolished.
#Dublin #Ireland #History #Heritage #HeritageAtRisk
#TheColourOfIreland
