It's a sure sign that a town has kept its traditional charm when film companies queue up to use the main street as a backdrop. In the film Michael Collins, crowd scenes took place in Rathdrum's Market Square and Kitty Kiernan's house was the Woolpack pub. Much of the Co Wicklow town - including the beautiful interior of Saint Mary's and Michael's church - featured in A Love Divided. Traces of the Durango shoot remain on signs around the town, particularly around the market square where Morgan Mackey's pub still has the look of an old-fashioned saloon. The Spice Girls caused quite a stir when they came to Rathdrum to record the video for one of their hit singles.
The county council put all the cables underground to facilitate the County Wicklow Film Commission, which has been promoting Rathdrum as a film location for some years. Advice was also given on grants for shopfronts under the Village Renewal scheme, with the aim of preserving the very pretty, steeply sloped streetscape.
All this has added colour to what used to be a rather lack-lustre market town. Rathdrum is 36 miles from Dublin. The Vale of Avoca, Glendalough, The Meeting of the Waters and Brittas Bay are all within a six mile radius, making the town an ideal touring centre. Avondale House and grounds are just over half a mile south of the town. The birthplace of Rathdrum's most famous son, Charles Stewart Parnell, is surrounded by a magnificent forest park which is visited by thousands of people annually.
The town's strategic position in the centre of Co Wicklow, yet with a rail and bus link to Dublin, makes it ideal for commuters with a yearning for a country lifestyle.
Four trains leave Rathdrum for Connolly Station on weekdays and the journey takes just under 90 minutes. A car journey via Glenealy and the N11 takes about an hour outside of peak times and the roads are excellent most of the way. Two buses, at 8.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. are in Dublin in two hours.
Local agents report that Dubliners are moving to Rathdrum, buying up cottages on a few acres and then catching the 7.15 train to the city each morning. Others are coming here to retire, while young couples are looking for homes under £100,000.
The town has plenty of character but even more potential. Everyone is talking about Wicklow County Council's Development Plan and how it will change the town. This was adopted in March, 1999, and includes the rezoning of land on the outskirts of the village for housing. The plan sets out to protect the trees and hedgerows and period buildings around the town. There is also provision for tax designated areas under the Rural Renewal Scheme, which will revamp run-down parts of the town. Proposals are with the Department of the Environment at present and a decision is expected shortly.
Visitors to the town shouldn't miss the old Cartoon Inn, where Terry Willer's cartoons cover the walls and where a cartoon festival was held annually for a number of years.
The building was once the local funeral parlour and morgue and locals still insist on calling the back function room "the coffin shed". Negotiations are at an advanced stage to sell the business to publican Paddy Duffy for around £500,000.
The cartoon festival attracted lots of visitors and tourists to the town and at one time there were plans to convert the old Technical School, a fine Victorian building set back from the main street with its own grounds. The building may now be demolished.
One of the most striking buildings in Rathdrum is the cutstone corn mill at the entrance to the town, now owned by Glanbia. There was talk of the mill being used as a film museum or arts and crafts centre. It is in poor condition and restoration would cost a considerable sum. Glanbia, which is anxious to see the old building put to an appropriate use, says it is open to suggestions which would not impinge on its grain store business which operates from modern premises nearby. The development plan tackles traffic, which is a nightmare on the main street during the tourist season.
Land has been rezoned residential to cope with the expected population expansion. In the 1996 census, there were 1,234 people living in Rathdrum and this is expected to reach 4,500 by the year 2016, according to Cllr Noel Jacob, who runs the Jacob's Well pub on Main Street. Noel's father, Joe Jacob, who is currently Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, acquired the pub with his brother in 1970, having run a cafe in Market Square for a number of years.
A number of asylum-seekers are housed in the Presbytery hostel and more are due to be housed in Rathdrum under the current plan.
The rezoned land is in concentrated pockets west, north and south of the town. One scheme of 121 houses planned for Knockadosan may run into difficulties because of the already overloaded and outdated sewerage system. Plans for a new treatment plant have been held up by the county council's problems in acquiring land for the scheme.
Keeping a watchful eye on changes is the Rathdrum Development Association, which operates out of the old Flannel Mill, at the Fairgreen. One of its projects was the Parnell National Memorial Park, which was laid out on grounds near the Church of Ireland church, with the help of a FAS team. While welcoming the upgrading of the town, the organisation has reservations about the scale and density of future new housing development and is calling for improvements in water supply, sewerage and facilities generally.
Property prices in Rathdrum have remained fairly static in recent years but they are now beginning to rise. Not always in good condition, townhouses in and around the main street are reasonably priced.
The small two-up-two-downs in the town are great buys if you can get one. Harrington Lait is currently selling a two-bedroom terraced house on Gilbert Row, asking £85,000. The same agent has a four-bedroom period house near the station, needing upgrading but with commercial potential, for £100,000. Harrington Lait has just sold the Old Railway Hotel for £650,000 to a Dublin purchaser "in the property business". It is early days yet to speculate on its eventual use, but the agent suggests apartments could be an option for the new buyer.
Bargains can be found in good-sized family houses too. Woodbine is a small estate of four-bedroom dormer bungalows near The Fairgreen, an area at the top of the town where the market once took place. Houses here sold for £44,500 when first built in 1993. Last year, sales included three sold by Douglas Newman Good, achieving £121,500 in January 1999, £125,000 in April and just over £130,000 in June.
Older bungalows, period country houses and quaint cottages are in great demand from city buyers, mainly as permanent homes. On the market now for £340,000 is Park House at Corballis, an eight-bedroom house on the Avoca/Arklow road which has its own maple-floored ballroom.
Remax Garden County recently sold Stoneybrook Lodge, a stone-built house on half an acre with river frontage at Greenane for in excess of £240,000 and Harrington Lait has just agreed the sale of Spring Cottage, on three acres of land and including a guest cottage at Glasnarget, for around £250,000. The same house changed hands last year for £185,000.
Any property with commercial potential attracts a lot of interest, particularly now that tax incentives to renovate are in the offing. Many business premises on the Main Street have side entrances and living accommodation upstairs. They often have large gardens at the rear, which is a big plus.
Joint agents James Gormley and Douglas Newman Good are currently seeking offers over £320,000 for a former butcher's shop on Main Street with upstairs accommodation and three old cottages to the rear.
