Guide to Gorey services

(Ionad Seirbhíse Guaire)

One of Ireland's newest motorway service areas has been around for ages. It was mothballed for four years while contractual arguments were sorted out, and was finally brought to life in 2019. Unusually for a modern service station, it has a busy restaurant area with little high street branding, though there is a small McDonald's.

Facilities

Catering: McDonald's, Cantina, Coffee Shop, Subway, Krispy Kreme, K-Freeze, Simply Great Coffee Shops: Circle K Amenities: Children's Play Area, Failte Ireland Tourist Information Display, Revolution Laundry, Repak Reverse Vending Machine, Showers Outdoor Space: Little grass space around site edge; Children's Play Area, Picnic Tables Charging Points: ESB ecars 50kW CCS, 50kW CHAdeMO & 43kW Type 2 Forecourt: Circle K

Parking Prices

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Contact Details

Trivia and History

The site has been called Gorey North by some sources, but the road signs just say 'Gorey'.

The amenity building has three entrances, serving the forecourt, car park and picnic area. 'Pay at pump' is available in the forecourt.

As part of a new enthusiasm for building new motorway service areas which the Irish government discovered in 2007, as well as the project to upgrade the N11 to motorway, a service area was planned at Gorey. The plan initially received objections from local businesses but these were overruled in favour of a traffic assessment which concluded that the M11 needed one service area.

Work started in August 2013 and finished in 2015, making it a year behind schedule. Topaz won a contract to operate it. Their offer scored 7% better than SuperStop's. SuperStop argued that this fell down to a difference in how the footpaths should be surfaced which hadn't been accounted for, and their objection prevented the new building from opening.

Applegreen, who are part of SuperStop, claimed there wasn't enough traffic to warrant opening Gorey, which would take trade from a site they privately developed at Wicklow. Applegreen planned and opened Wicklow in the time it took to resolve disputes about Gorey.

In May 2017, it was announced the services would be opening later that year, however in November 2017, Topaz revealed that they still hadn't entered any formal agreements to open the site, hinting that the contract is no longer as attractive as they thought it would be. The site was ready to open during this time, but was fenced off and guarded by a 24-hour security patrol, costing over €400,000 in addition to the €10 million investment.

The opening date was pushed back throughout 2018. Circle K (the new name for Topaz) started fitting out the site in September 2018, and started recruiting staff in November 2018, telling them it would be opening before the end of the year. This date was pushed back again to February 2019, and pushed back again until it officially opened on 28 March 2019.

Upon opening it claimed to be the largest service station in Europe. That's a little deceitful, but it's probably Ireland's largest service station. Space was left inside for a McDonald's, which eventually opened later in 2019.

Circle K announced in December 2022 that a Petite Camile would open here, but it didn't materialise. Instead Subway opened in October 2024; the first Subway at a major Circle K service area, though the two had worked together at their city centre stores.

The service area was the subject of the recurring RTÉ Radio One programme 'Services Ahead' on 3 June 2024.

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