Posts Tagged ‘ questcampus ’
Finally, time to show off some of the progress we’ve been making!
We’ll try for another post with more of a naritive instead of a block of pictures to let everyone know what was going on. As you can see a lot of the fine, sunny days happened before the roof was moved, then the fog and snow rolled in for a few days.. Work still goes on!
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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!
Charleville Castle is one step closer to realising the dream of having proper temporary accommodation on its site – we have been working diligently now for the past 3 weeks on disassembling one of the two donated Austrian Strabag buildings at the Limerick Tunnel construction site and are successfully on schedule. We have over 20 hard working volunteers currently on the site who have gone through safe pass training in order to help in the disassembly/transport and re-assembly process. We are forever grateful for their help and efforts – some even staying weekly to help get the job done in Limerick to avoid long travel.
In order for this project to be completed, we need to be able to compensate our volunteer’s expenses so that they can complete the project.
The addition to proper lodgings on the castle grounds means big and promising improvements for Charleville Castle. It means that any volunteer or overnight stay groups can relax knowing that they will have their own living quarters equipped with meeting rooms, kitchens, laundry, showers and bathrooms for themselves. Event and fundraiser organizers can have more comfortable and accessible production offices on the event grounds. At present, the accommodation conditions are awkward as the castle becomes increasingly under pressure from unnecessary traffic which contradicts our conservation process. This way, international and national volunteer groups can have comfortable lodgings for days, weeks at a time and enables increased restoration projects to happen more frequently. Interns will have lodgings instead of having to find accommodation in town, and overnight stay groups can have a gathering in the castle and retire to comfortable facilities without having to sleep on the floor or remove all bedding from the main rooms in time for tours to commence.
We really need the support from our members in order to fund this project to prevent excess traffic in the castle’s delicate areas where the temporary buildings would ease this aspect.
If you would like to make a charitable donation to Charleville Castle Heritage Trust you can donate via paypal below or if you wish to donate some time to help contact us via the contact page at the top and let us know what you can do!
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Any denomination is appreciated and will boost morale in the volunteers that are making this project happen with your help.
Our next update will come shortly –
Thanks a million!
The Volunteers
Charleville 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?
