Following on from extensive storm damage and emergency repair works, it is hoped that Doneraile Park will re-open to the public early next week, after being closed for almost three weeks.

The beautifully landscaped park was hit hard by Storm Darwin and had been forced to close on February 12, the worst day of the storm.

With two crews working on the park to clear the paths, roads and areas, park superintendent Hugh Carrigan told The Avondhu that he is hopeful that they will be in a position to open again early next week 'by Tuesday or Wednesday'.

The high winds and hurricane type gales led to the loss of up to 80 mature specimen trees, which would have dated back around 250 years.

"These would have been quite significant in terms of the heritage of the park," Mr Carrigan explained.

As well as this, hundreds of mature pine, larch and douglas fir trees were blown over and many young trees also fell foul to the storms. I all, the park lost hundreds of trees and they are now actively cleaning up the public areas, before they start to replant.

The crews are currently clearing trees and hazardous materials from the paths and roads and also from high points, where debris would have been blown.

"It's slow work and it requires specialist equipment, but we're working our way through it," Mr Carrigan, who is also a horticulturist, said.

He added that while the emergency work and clear ups will be completed by next week to have the park ready and safe for the public, there will be months more work required and they will be replanting with species that fit in with the romantic landscape, which has become synonomous with the park.

The tea rooms which have become increasingly popular were also closed and Conal Kelly of Doneraile Court Tea Rooms said that they had been trading every day from 10am until 4pm so the storm did affect their business.

He said that they are looking forward to opening next week and getting back to normal, but thankfully the house and tea rooms were not adversely affected by the storm.

blog comments powered by Disqus