Public access to Glendruid Dolmen, a 5,500-year-old portal tomb, in south Dublin, is due for public consultation in the coming weeks.

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council officials said the consultation, on Cherrywood Greenway, would include consultation on permanent public access to the Dolmen.

The commitment to include access to the dolmen as part of the greenway consultation came as councilors expressed concern that the dolmen is located on private land, in an area of ​​intensive development , much of which is currently offered for sale by the National Asset Management Agency. (Nama).

Councilor Barry Saul (FG) told the meeting that access to the dolmen was extremely difficult. “I had to climb a tree and a river,” he said. Councilor Saul added that the concern was that “the Nama are putting us out to tender”.

Councilor Hugh Lewis (Ind) said he was “aware of the continuing struggle to gain access” and he expressed concern that a council report had been “ambiguous” to the extent that access was described as “visual access”. Mr Lewis said he believed plans for Cherrywood SDZ had initially committed to a dolmen access route and he asked whether the wider Cherrywood scheme needed to be reconsidered. If so, he asked if access could be ensured in the context of such a review.

Councilor Frank McNamara said he was in favor of permanent public access as many people did not know the dolmen was there.

A number of members paid tribute to the council’s heritage officer, Deirdre Black, for the work done to protect the dolmen and Therese Langan, the councilor’s director of community and cultural development, said that “the ambition was to create “formal and easy access” to the dolmen.

She said informal access was available – “it’s not inaccessible” but “at the end of the day people want [FORMAL]access and that’s what we’re trying to do”.

The board agreed to hear another progress report at the June meeting.

The Glendruid Dolmen is also known as the Brennanstown Dolmen and is comparable to the larger and more famous Poulnabrone Dolmen in County Clare.

The cornerstone of the dolmen alone weighs about 50 tons. It rests on two west-facing entrance/gate stones and three side stones. The set creates an interior chamber of 3m by 1.5m with a door slab and a bedside slab.