A small Cork council will make the first move today to challenge one of Britain's richest aristocrats about who was given rights to a river bed 400 years ago by King James I.
Youghal's nine urban district councillors are expected to back a motion to set aside money to fund a court challenge over who owns the bed of the Blackwater river.
The councillors are disputing a claim by the Duke of Devonshire that the river bed is part of his Lismore Castle estate in Co Waterford.
Cllr Oliver Casey, who has tabled the motion, said the dispute centres on royal charters from King James I in the early 1600s.
The council is considering building a yacht marina but would have to seek the duke's permission and pay rent to him for any development on the river.
"It's an extraordinary situation. You would expect river beds to be owned by the State. I have no animosity towards the duke, but it is a natural resource and part of our heritage."
The duke's claim dates to a grant made in 1613 by King James I. However, Mr Casey said he has established that in 1609, the king granted the then mayor of Youghal rights to all rivers along the coast between Ardmore on the east and Caple Island on the west.
"Our charter predates his by four years and gives us much more than we are looking for. Two of us can't own the same property.
"The bed of the river was bequeathed to the mayor and his successors forever for the people of the town. The successors are the chairman of the UDC."
The council is also the harbour authority and Mr Casey's motion calls for cash to pay lawyers to be set aside from the town's annual £1.4 million budget.
The council chairman, Mr Dennis Murphy, expects the motion will get unanimous support.
When the council approached the duke's Irish agent, Mr Michael Penruddock, about the river bed earlier this year, he told them the estate owns the "ground soil and bottom" from the low-water tide mark.
Originally Sir Walter Raleigh owned the Lismore Castle estate. He sold it to the Earl of Cork and it later passed to the Devonshires by marriage.
The duke, who is aged 79, also owns one of Britain's most famous stately homes, Chatsworth House on 70,000 acres in Derbyshire. He is estimated to have a personal fortune of £300 million.