Behind the Harris Fencing at Castlewellan Historic Demesne

Re-Rooting our past in the Future: Castlewellan Historic Demesne – Project Overview 

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. The “Re-rooting our past in the future” project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, over £5.5 million is being invested into Castlewellan Historic Demesne.

At this stage in the Castlewellan Historic Demesne project the capital works is around 50% complete, with most work carried out to date in the first courtyard and car park. The new visitor information centre, formerly the café, has almost completed its renovation and has a beautiful gable wall showing period features. Once the renovation is completed the next step will be installing a range of interpretation to tell the amazing stories of the demesne.

The Harris fencing, scaffolding, walls and paths have been hiding some fascinating discoveries. The Grange buildings have been around since 1750, possibly earlier, and the construction work has uncovered clues to past uses in the form of double arches and old engraved bricks which were only made for a short period of time. They have also revealed some head scratchers such as large building stones, too heavy for a man to lift, which posed the question of how the stones were manoeuvred into position without the aid of power tools.

The half-demolished side of the Grange which used to have all the kayaks sitting outside it will become the Grange Centre, a hireable space for the community to utilise consisting of three conference rooms and a kitchen area. The breeze blocks which formed the back wall have been cleared away and the wall rebuilt with stones in the traditional style used in all the rest of the walls. Preparing the site for reconstruction was no small task as a small tree was growing down through the middle of one of the walls; a fantastic example of biological weathering, though I doubt the builders agreed. Work has begun on the second floor and roof, which can clearly be seen above the scaffolding.

The former Grange Hall has been stripped back and given a new ceiling and floor between the ground and first floor, as well as a new back door which will lead out to a seating area of the new café. On the first floor the stonework has been cleared of paint and will be left as a feature.

Meanwhile, in the Annesley Walled Garden new path surfaces and cobbled drains have been installed along the central axis from the Heron fountain up to the Penny gate. Additional cobble drains have been added along some of the side paths to control water run-off and prevent erosion of the new path surfaces.

The two fountains are currently cleared of plants and water whilst they get restored to working order. 

The Heron Fountain held some interesting finds from coins, to toys, to mobile phones! The coins are being kept safe as they are people’s wishes and will be returned to the fountain when its restoration is complete.

The butterfly gates have been carefully restored and returned to their original site in the heart of the garden. The gardening team have also been busy planting new plants and trees; we now have a tree fern section of the garden. Tree ferns date from the time of the dinosaurs.

Once bird nesting season finished at the end of summer work began in earnest within the Rhododendron wood, clearing back the overgrown under growth and clearing out dead and dying trees. It is impressive how much clearance work has occurred in a few short weeks. Once the clearance work is completed work will begin on the paths which will enable exploration of the wood.