| Sumario: | This paper focuses on counter-urbanisation flows and explores their implications for spatial planning, through case study research in the Republic of Ireland. Based on a household survey, the paper focuses on a sample of counter-urban in-migrants identified in a high growth rural area within the Greater Dublin region. The paper seeks to address the principal motives behind such relocations. It is suggested that, while the counter-urbanisation concept has been frequently used to describe rural in-migration movements, relatively little attention has been paid either to the significance of such movements for the settlement pattern (physical change, rural housing growth), or to the implications for planning policy (control of urban-generated rural housing developments). The paper concludes that an understanding of counter-urbanisation trends is crucial in addressing the missing link between urban and rural issues in planning policy. This is particularly important in the context of the revival of strategic planning and policies put in place to address phenomena based on the urban-rural relationship.
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