Plans for café/restaurant at former landmark brewery in north Louth

Plans are underway to convert part of a former granary building at the Macardle Moore Brewery in Dundalk to a café/restaurant, with the submission of a planning application to Louth County Council in recent days.

Brewery Business Park Ltd has applied for planning permission for the development at The Brewery Business Park, Ardee Road, Dundalk, seeking the go ahead for the change of use of part of the existing Granary Building, to a café/restaurant. The Granary Building is a Protected Structure in Louth County Council's Record of Protected Structures.

The plans provide for associated internal alterations at the building, including new toilet facilities; provision of a kitchen in the adjoining building; reopening of existing blocked opes; formation of new opes for windows/doors; and installation of a glazed canopy to the front elevation.

The application also provides for associated signage, drainage connections, reallocation of car parking spaces to outdoor seating, and all associated site works and services.

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A decision is due on the application, which is at a pre-validation stage, by 6 January 2026, with submissions due by 7 December.

In the description of the building in the Louth County Council Record of Protected Structures, it says that it is an attached four-bay multiple-storey former granary, built c 1865. 

In the appraisal it says: "One of many brewery buildings, this granary forms part of a group which was an important industrial centre in Dundalk in the nineteenth century. The bargeboards and finial detailing of the dormers enhance the functional design."