Pre-development Evidence of human activity in the area dates to (at least) the Neolithic period, with the
Brennanstown Portal Tomb dated to . Another wedge tomb in Laughanstown dates from either the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. The ruined
Tully Church at Laughanstown was established between the 6th and 9th centuries and remained in use until the 17th century. Under fear of invasion by Napoleonic forces, a large army camp was established at Laughanstown in 1794 that is believed to have housed as many as 4,000 soldiers. Several roads were built connecting the camp to the coast at
Killiney including the Military Road that runs through the crossroads ar
Ballybrack before it was decommissioned in the 1810s. The
Harcourt Street railway line was built through the area in the 1850s. Trains passed over a large 5-arched viaduct at Bride's Glen, located directly to the south of the modern business park. The Harcourt Street Line was closed in 1958, and the viaduct remains disused.
Business park development Cherrywood is being formed around the business park, in a deliberate process under a Cherrywood-Carrickmines Local Area Plan, the 2004 and later County Development Plans, and a related Cherrywood-Rathmichael Area Plan. Cherrywood is designated as a District Centre, and limits apply to certain forms of development there. In total the business park has an area of approximately 400 acres with, as of 2024, much of it still under development or undeveloped. The site where Cherrywood is located was rezoned for development by
Dublin County Council in late 1993, at that time owned by Monarch Properties. In 1998 the first office buildings were developed in what was then branded "Cherrywood Business Park". Development proceeded slowly and, as with other planned developments in Ireland, the property crash in 2008 affected Cherrywood. In 2015, when several buildings were still empty while other planned developments were incomplete, some reports described parts of the development as a "ghost town".
New management In 2012, investors created a new management company to market the area again after the collapse of
Liam Carroll's development company. This was backed by
AIB Bank and
Danske Bank (parent company of
National Irish Bank). Parts of the area received a facelift, and the "facilities building", which had previously only housed a food outlet, was expanded to include a gym. Most of the main office buildings are owned by the same company. A new master plan was made and approved by the local authority, including plans for over 1,200 apartments and over 500,000 square feet of commercial space, including a hotel.
Rebranding and further development Following a €145m acquisition by Spear Street Capital of the eight office blocks comprising the development in January 2018, the business park was rebranded as "The Campus Cherrywood". Proceeds from the deal were later used to develop the surrounding area. Plans to open a new life-sciences incubation and acceleration facility in the area were announced in October 2021. The new facility was planned to provide 18 labs and 9 offices over 30,000 square feet of space, and create 100 jobs in the sector. == Major tenants ==