Johnstown Castle works imminent
CONTRACTORS will be on site shortly at Johnstown Castle to begin work on a €7.5 million project to restore it to its former glory and open it to be public.
‘We are on track to complete the project in 2018 and there will be contractors on site at the middle to end of February at the latest,’ said project team member Mairead Esmonde, from Teagasc.
‘We’ve two projects, the castle restoration and the visitor centre and car park and both will go on at the same time,’ she told this newspaper.
Ms Esmonde said Johnstown would be largely accessible to the public because the specialist works in the castle won’t have any impact on access to the grounds and the new build is an area where people don’t currently go, although there will be some disruption to events in the grounds.
As part of the works, a new entrance will be opened on the Wexford side of the castle entrance with a branch to the EPA.
Shared by Teagasc in partnership with the Irish Heritage Trust and the Irish Agricultural Museum with the help of €7.5 million in government funding, it will see conservation works carried out on the three floors of the castle to make it safe and accessible before it becomes open to the public.
The interpretive centre with information on the castle’s history and local stories will be positioned behind the agricultural museum next to a new carpark.
In 2015, Teagasc issued a public tender looking for a visionary partner to come on board with them to re-imagine the future of Johnstown Castle.
The Irish Heritage Trust was announced as the successful applicant.
Meanwhile Teagasc has applied for planning permission for a circa €5 million redevelopment of its ageing laboratory complex at Johnstown.
‘The planning application is with the county council. They have a query about our waste management,’ said Dr Carl Richards, the head of the research department at Teagasc.
‘This is still a priority project, but I am not certain when it will proceed,’ Dr Richards told this newspaper.
Dr Richards said the new laboratory complex would add to the existing labs that were built in the 1970s.
‘Things have changed in terms of international best practise for labs and we need to bring ours into the 21st Century. This will enable us to do our research to the highest level, with the best international practise and investigate new research areas in terms of sustainable farming,’ he said.
‘When we get permission to proceed we will go out to tender for what is the largest investment in research facilities we have had since 1970. However, we have no clear funding mechanism in place within Teagasc at the moment so it might take a year or two in terms of funding,’ said Mr Richards.
Johnstown Castle estate has been home to two prominent Wexford families.
The first owners were the Esmondes; a Norman family who settled in the county in the 1170s. They constructed the tower houses at Johnstown and Rathlannon during the 15th or 16th century.
During the Cromwellian period of 1640s the estate was confiscated and changed hands several times before being acquired by John Grogan in 1692, whose descendents remained at Johnstown up until 1945. In this year Maurice Victor Lakin presented Johnstown Castle estate as a gift to the Nation.
By 1863 Johnstown Castle estate was at its peak of development and comprised of a large demesne of over 1,000 acres.
It was divided in two with a deer park to the north, and the castle, pleasure grounds, home farm and two lakes (with a third lake under construction) to the south.
Teagasc, the Agricultural and Food Development Authority, is the owner of the Johnstown Castle estate.