Offical news page of Charleville Castle

Sundays are usually quiet affairs, sunday dinner, sunday drive, etc. Oh and now-a-days sunday shopping. For us it’s still project lift! Site work can’t be done on Sunday so what we can fit in to a trailer is fitted and shipped back to the castle saturday night, sunday begins the sorting, storage and de-nailing in some cases.

We can store alot of the materials in the lower areas of the castle, alot of the smaller peices from the interior are easily handled and fitted in. The larger pieces from outside walls, the roof (a-frames, awnings), in some cases the windows are going to be the hard parts to store! That is of course after the transport is arranged.

If you have storage around Tullamore or even in Limerick that you might donate for awhile to help with this project then give us a shout! If you have transport that might help us get some of these materials from Limerick to Tullamore (or where we’re storing them) we’ed love to hear from you as well!

Once we get a roof over the first building on our site storage problems will dissappear for a little while. We’ll be able to move a good bit of the other building inside the first one so all the materials are on site and near to hand for us. Pallets are also high on the list! Walls must be stacked on pallets for ease of transport using a teleporter or forklift and of course the save huge amounts of time when loading and unloading a container. If you have any spare pallets we’ed gladly put them to good use!

We’ve been a bit quiet over the last few days, mainly due to being quiet busy with project lift and other castle related projects.

We’re more then half way through the deconstructing of the buildings in Limerick (Phase 1) and we’ll be moving on to transportation and storage soon enough. We won’t be short of things to do this year at all! Micheal from the castle has kindly been taking pictures of the progress during deconstruction, we’re nearly finished processing and organising them so they will be up soon.

Killarney Paranormal Society are doing a fundraiser for the castle, a leg and chest waxing! Ouch. They have four guys lined up already for it, hope it goes well for you guys!

It’s being held in The Granery, Killarney, Co. Kerry on the 6th of March. Have a look at the facebook page for more details. Head down, have some fun and watch someone get waxed on the night

This is what this beautiful building looks like after volunteers painstakingly removed 3,088 (30,000 square feet) peices of plaster board with less than 20% losses. This big challenge is over now and on to the next one! We are preparing to take the roof off next week – we need steeplejacks and licensed riggers badly – help us find them!

See the insulation in the ceilings – we have saved all this too! and the electric cables, fittings and other services. Nothing will go to waste …. its time to step in, roll up the sleeves and get stuck in – yes?

Let us know what you can do to help out and get these beautiful buildings on their way to the castle!

We have some major work on at Charleville Castle this year – so we’re going to need more help than usual. Basically, we have long needed to move on to get more done on the project and the opportunity to do so became ours just before Christmas. Seven days before Christmas we concluded one of our best sponsorship deals ever. Through discussions with Strabag,  the main contractor for the Limerick Tunnel, we have become the proud owners of the site management and command buildings of the recently-completed Limerick Tunnel Project. These are attractive, well-designed, temporary demountable flat-pack units which can be installed where, and when, needed around Charleville Castle to provide the management and organisational facilities to take on the more challenging work. It’s a dynamic situation so we need more “hands on deck”, more volunteers and for longer periods of time. The whole project revolves around volunteership and the spirit that develops within this kind of endeavor.

Clearly Charleville Castle could be a bottom-less pit for endless amounts of money but we have proven that through volunteership we can achieve long-term sustainability through practical and committed volunteership the loyalty, and respect, develops for the long-term goals of best conservation practice under the care of a community of people who are happy to be involved, gaining somewhat from it, and proud of the advancement. So mostly, to move onto the next level, Charleville Castle needs more volunteership and better volunteer and site management facilities.

This is a big LIFT and the success of this big LIFT might depend on you. Every tiny drop of help that we can get will be needed in this intensive period of operation.  Once achieved we will be in a position to start setting our aims on projects which have been beyond our grasp – at least that is without incurring excessive risk. The roof of the chapel, link-wing and kitchen – radical improvements in the way we present this precious site to the public – these and other radical improvements will then be contemplated. But mostly we will have increased volunteer capacity and the resources that then become possible.

So we are asking you to think hard about helping. We are asking you to get behind us in a practical way – big or small. Do you have trucks to carry material? Have you site work experience and a safe pass with some time to spare? Can you help us hire the people who we can’t find as volunteers – through a donation – no matter how small? Is there other ways that you can suggest to “give us a dig out” as we move forward under the pressure of this big project?

We have set up a special dedicated email lift@charlevillecastle.com – send us your suggestions and your pledges – please or find “Charleville Castle” on facebook or drop us a line. Leave a message on our answering services 057 9323040.

Are you with us?