Sligo County Council has been ordered to pay three quarters of the estimated €7 million legal bill in a public rights of way row at the historic Lissadell House.
The Supreme Court costs order follows its ruling last November that public rights of way do not exist on 3 of 4 routes across the lands. Today the court also stood by its judgment after the council unusually asked it to revisit some of its findings.
To put the costs of the case in context, the current owners of Lissadell, barristers Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy, paid €4 million for the property in 2003.
The house was the childhood home of Countess Markiewicz and Eva Gore Booth and is mentioned in a poem by W.B. Yeats.
The current owners have spent millions restoring the property but closed the gates to the public in 2009 after Sligo County Council passed a motion to preserve public rights of way on the lands.
They disputed the claim and lost an epic 58 day High Court battle against the local authority declaring at its end that 'the dream is over'.
However they were mostly successful on appeal which is reflected in today's order that they are to pay half of their own legal costs.
