Clearing homes in Athy
Athy was a Norman crossing on the Barrow, and the town has kept the shape of that: White’s Castle guarding the bridge, Emily Square behind it, and a grid of streets, Leinster Street, Duke Street, William Street and Stanhope Street, lined with Georgian and Victorian town houses, many of them three storeys with a shop or office at street level. The canal basin, the old maltings and the railway station mark the industrial edge of the town.
Housing spread outward from the 1970s. Townsparks, Clonmullin and Coneyboro are mostly two-storey semis and terraces, with Ardrew and the newer estates on the edges of the town added in the 2000s. Beyond the town boundary, south Kildare is farmland, and the houses are farmhouses with yards, one-off bungalows on an acre and dormer houses from the Celtic Tiger years.
Shackleton was born at Kilkea a few miles away and the Shackleton Museum in the old town hall on Emily Square remembers him; Castledermot, Ballitore and Kilkea are the villages on the Athy side of the county, and Carlow town is a short drive down the Barrow.
What we clear in Athy
- Town houses on Leinster Street, Duke Street and around Emily Square, three storeys of furniture coming down one stairs, with the van on the street outside.
- Farmhouses and rural bungalows on the roads to Castledermot, Kilkea and Ballitore, quoted as house and outbuildings together. A hayshed, a workshop and a garage can hold more than the house itself; the garage clearance page explains how we sort metal, timber and tools.
- Estate homes in Townsparks, Clonmullin, Coneyboro and Ardrew being cleared for sale or a new tenancy, attic and shed included.
- Bereavement clearances, which make up most of our south Kildare calls, done with care for papers, photographs and anything personal. Our guide on how to clear a house after a bereavement is worth reading first.
- Hoarded or long-neglected houses, in town or on a farm, handled discreetly in a place where neighbours know each other. Our hoarder clearance page sets out how we work.
Builder’s rubble, old fencing and heaps of garden waste from a farmyard are a skip-type load rather than a van job, and a skip or a garden waste clearance service is better placed for those; we will tell you if that is the case.
Access, parking and the practical bits
The town-centre streets are narrow and the town houses have no driveways, so the van sits outside on Leinster Street or Duke Street with the hazards on while we carry. Emily Square and the surrounding streets have pay parking and get busy on market and school days, so a morning start suits. A rear yard off a side lane, where one exists, is quicker than the front door.
Estate houses have the usual driveway, kerb and side gate. Farm sites are about the approach: most lanes and gateways in south Kildare take a box van easily, but a long yard or a shed at the far end of a field adds carrying time, and soft ground after rain is a consideration for a loaded van. A photo of the gateway and the yard with your Eircode is enough to plan on.
From Dublin, Athy is reached on the M7 and M9 to Kilcullen and then the Athy road, or by the M7 to Kildare Town and south from there. It is a long run for a loaded van, which is why we are straight about the size of job that makes sense here and why Athy work is grouped with Kildare Town or Carlow when it can be.
Why people in Athy call us
Our Athy calls come from families spread across the country and abroad who have a parent’s house or a farmhouse to empty and want it done by one crew in one or two days rather than over a summer of weekends. Executors, solicitors and estate agents with a sale date ring for the same reason. A two-person crew with a box van, working under a waste collection permit, does the lifting, the sorting and the disposal: furniture and goods in decent condition go to reuse or donation, metal and recyclables are separated, and genuine waste goes to a licensed transfer station.
The original write-up of how we reached the towns beyond Dublin, including Kildare, Carlow and Laois is still on the site.
If what you have is a single wardrobe or a few bin bags, the county council’s recycling centre or a local man with a van will serve you better than a van from Dublin, and we would rather say so than quote for it.
Kildare Town is the nearest of our other towns, Newbridge and Naas are back up the M7, the whole county is on the Kildare page, and for Carlow and beyond, ask.
