Moving to Ashbourne

christy35

Hi all,

I’m looking about buying a house in the Churchfield area of Ashbourne and wanted to get people’s opinion on that development or living in the wider area in general?

I’m not from the area originally but have seen some comments lately about anti social behaviour around area and concerns about growing levels of social housing. Would love to hear from anyone living there already!

Thanks

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058353705/moving-to-ashbourne

We were looking in Churchfields. Went op one night and parked up near the house we were interested in just to see what it was like. Waited in the car for a while and then went for a walk around the area. Saw lots of teenagers hanging around but no anti-social behavior at all. We thought it area was nice and would happily live there.

Then for a couple of days we said we would drive out at morning rush hour and evening rush hour. On both days the traffic is just diabolical around Ashbourne and it would break you around Ratoath. It was after that we decided that no way, no how, could we put up with the traffic around that general area, so we knocked that area off our search (Ratoath, Ashbourne).

If you were working from home or getting the bus i guess it wouldnt matter, but we figured we wouldnt always be working from home and then there would be kids school tuns etc at some point. Ive never seen such bad traffic (Donabate comes close but not near as bad as Ashbourne, Ratoath). So make sure you drive around there about 8 am and 5 or 6 pm and see if you could manage that every day.

Fiona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122196868#Comment_122196868

The road works in Ashbourne are causing a lot of misery. The only good thing about Ashbourne is how compact it is, there are schools right outside your estate. There are more schools a 5 minute walk in two other directions.

You don't need a car for a school run in that estate it's a prime location. You just need legs and wellies.

You also have Lidl across from your estate, again Dunnes, Supervalue, Tesco and Aldi are less than 5 minutes walk from you.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122240378#Comment_122240378

Ashbourne is lovely to be fair, if you dont have to leave it every morning and get back to it in the evening again. Ratoath is too crowded now for whats there though imo. I would definitely avoid Ratoath if looking to buy. If you have to commute avoid Ashbourne too.

This commute was horrendous long before the road works I am talking about. The kids can walk to school when they are old enough anyway, so if its only the school run you wouldnt have to worry about that for long.

But unless you are working in Ashbourne/Ratoath too, its absolute misery town for commuters. Has been for about 10 years now, and it gets worse all the time, apart from during lockdown of course.

Even the drive to Swords takes 40 - 60 mins mins at rush hour against only 20 minutes at other times.

My advice to the OP is stay out there for a week or so and commute to work to gauge for yourself if you will be happy with it or not.

Fiona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122240591#Comment_122240591

Try commuting from Navan lol, we moved from Ashbourne to Navan in 2021. Culture shock to say the least, still small price to pay for living in a nice area I guess x

Hyperache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122240591#Comment_122240591

Most of the commuter towns that are close to Dublin are experiencing the same issues.

Dunboyne will be the same in 5 years too, there's about 1000 more houses planned there too, and it's an awful lot smaller than Ratoath.

Commuting from Navan is a nightmare too now, the only trade off there is that you'll get much better value for the money so people might be able to put up with it.

Most of these towns are experiencing big population increases, and the infrastructure is not moving at the rate required to cater for it.

Fiona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122246157#Comment_122246157

Yes great value for money, we got a 4 bed in a very nice established estate for €325k, now that was back in 2021 so a lot has changed since then I guess.

antimatterx

I have family who bought there 20 years ago or so. They said it'd really gone down hill, there's not much to do, traffic is a nightmare.

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122250586#Comment_122250586

Traffic is mental, there's no way I'd move to Ratoath or Ashbourne with the way things are, but I wouldn't agree "there's not much to do".

Plenty of shops, high street, cinema and retail park, Burger King and McDonald's, a decent amount of pubs and some with music (though I wouldn't be a fan of most), decent amount of restaurants and take aways, any amount of sports facilities like rugby, GAA, football, baseball, golf, etc. Two swimming pools, though I'm not sure if both are open to the public, two or three gyms, maybe more? Large playground near the high street, and another as far as I know at the back of Churchfields. Ratoath I would say has very little, Ashbourne has plenty.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122246157#Comment_122246157

Ive never seen anything as bad as Ashbourne and Ratoath though. Not even near as bad for traffic. They are as bad as Dublin city center for several hours around rush hour

SharkMX

Totally accurate post