Planning granted for previously refused small timber business in North Donegal

Conditional planning permission has been granted by Donegal County Council for the development of a small business rural enterprise with the purposes of creating a timber product facility between Ballyarr and Milford.

The application, submitted by the applicant, Kenneth Bradley, for a site in the townland of Moyle, is to create and construct small business rural enterprise on site to include a storage container and kiln drying oven, covered storage area for the purposes of storing kiln dried timber, covered storage area for the purpose of storing wet/green lumber/green wood, a stuff shed and portaloo welfare facility, and a car parking area for the overall purposes of creating a small timber product facility for public use. 

Donegal County Council refused a similar application in June 2025, as the planning authority considered the proposed development failed to “demonstrate that it would constitute a valuable addition to the local economy.”

It was also considered that the previous application failed to comply with the County Donegal Development Plan 2024-2030, and “would result in a visually obtrusive form of development which would fail to integrate into the High Scenic Amenity landscape.”

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The site had also been subject to a successful planning application for a paintball adventure centre in 2002, which is the reason why a container is currently on the site.

In applying for this successful application, Dessie McLaughlin of DML Architecture & Building Surveying, wrote: “Mr. Bradley has been using the site in question for his own use of storing felled timber, cutting in into various sizes and lengths and using for purposes of his own making and doing for example, garden flower pots/boxes, garden benches, decorative signs, fence posts and rails and for own-use fire logs and timber.” 

Donegal County Council granted the application permission with eight conditions, including a condition that a “suitably qualified archaeologist” be appointed to “ensure the continued preservation (either in situ or by record) of places, caves, sites, features or other objects of archaeological interest.”