23 December 2025

Construction of the new Mount Temple Comprehensive School is well underway. Located on the grounds of the existing campus on Malahide Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3, the development is due to complete in Q4 2026.

The project will deliver a new 10,685 sqm post-primary facility designed to accommodate 1,200 pupils. Spanning 9.49 ha, the development involves a phased demolition of six existing buildings totalling 6,251 sqm to bring all school activities into a single building. The project also encompasses a 20-classroom Special Educational Needs (SEN) facility, including play areas, traffic management and all associated site works. The new facility spans over 2.02 ha and will be interwoven around existing astro-turf pitches and the protected structures.

Working in close collaboration with Wejchert Architects alongside project members Mythen Construction Ltd (main contractor), KSN and Varming Consulting Engineers Ltd, Waterman Moylan’s team provided complete civil and structural engineering services for
the scheme.

Demolition on a live school site

Five of the buildings scheduled for demolition are in use by the school, including the 1960s Mount Temple Hall, the maths block, and two prefabricated units. A disused sports pavilion is also located to the south of the site. To minimise disruption to the fully operational school, the project team are implementing a carefully sequenced demolition strategy that ensures education can continue without interruption throughout the construction period.

The site has dual access points from the northern and southern boundaries to manage logistics efficiently, and a clear separation between the existing and new school areas enables phased construction and a smooth decanting of pupils from the old to the new buildings.

Preserving history

The historic Mount Temple House and its iconic clock tower dates back to early 1860s. These protected structures had to be carefully considered very early in the design strategy where sightlines and clearances guided the location of the new school building. The team installed a tiered terrace area between the Malahide and Howth Road entrances as the footprint for the new school.

To accommodate the site’s existing terraces and ensure full accessibility, the design includes a series of internal and external retaining walls, along with a sloping boulevard integrated into the landscaping to comply with Part M of the building regulations. Elsewhere, the planning conditions required measures to ensure privacy and separation from neighbouring properties. The site’s steep topography required us to design a retaining wall and boundary fence along the western elevation. This feature protects a line of sensitive mature trees where mini piles are minimising disruption to protected trees and their roots.

The team incorporated several unique structural elements into the final design. This includes feature bow string trusses and skylights in the new sports hall and a three-storey entrance atrium area and a cantilevered library area with a prominent staircase overlooking the entrance atrium. The scheme also incorporates external store, an ESB substation and switch room, 72 car parking spaces, new site lighting, and associated ancillary hard and soft landscaping.

Designed with sustainability at its heart, the team included photovoltaic panels along the southern elevation and integrated a sustainable urban drainage system into the site. An underground attenuation tank has been added to manage stormwater runoff efficiently. In alignment with the government’s Low Carbon Design requirements introduced in 2024, all concrete used on site incorporates a minimum of 30% Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag which significantly reduces the carbon footprint during the construction process.

Eoghan Loughrey, Associate Director at Waterman Moylan said:

It is great to see the progression on the Mount Temple site. This transformative development reflects our commitment to delivering future-ready educational environments. We’re proud to be working alongside our partners on Mount Temple and St Michaels House to bring this vision to life for the community.”