Phase II: Planning (2016-2018)
We knew this phase would take time and we would need many experts. There is a significant amount of preparation and paperwork needed to apply for permissions at both the local and national levels. Included in this phase are activities like measured surveys, archeological assessment, septic percolation tests, architectural designs, conservation methodology. Getting Started as Owners After purchasing the castle in May, we returned in July 2016 to enter as owners, do some basic cleanup, meet the neighbors and figure out our initial plan. Since the tower was not accessible from the outside without a very long and dangerous ladder, we removed the cemented doorway and installed our first small project - a small oak hobbit door! Student Design Contest We wanted to get some other ideas for renovation. From September to December 2016 we invited university students to submit designs. Waterford Institute of Technology submitted 13 design ideas as part of a 3rd year architecture program. The ideas were innovative, and the best suggestion was to create a public entrance on the north side, away from the Big House view. In November 2016 we held our first community event and invited interested people to help us clear brush around the castle so we could see the state of the walls. We were delighted when Larry, Anthony and Stella Bates showed up to help, and have been helping ever since! Archeology We had met Archeologist Catherine McLoughlin with husband Emmet in early 2016, and we hired her to do both the Archeological and Architectural Impact Studies Catherine worked with us through two rounds of testing, in November 2016 and May 2018. Nothing of great interest or significance was found, but we discovered the cobbled courtyard that we later uncovered in construction. Castle Dating & Geophysical Survey Rory Sherlock was running an Irish Tower House dating project using wicker, and Bayesian analysis, a statistical method which can provide better dates. We received a grant from the Castle Studies Group to cover the archeology, fees, labwork to date our wicker. This showed the castle had a higher probability of dating from 1480-1550 so we nominally say 1520 is the date of construction. It also revealed that the wicker supports for the tower vault and arches were made from gorse - a first in Rory's study! Joann Leigh performed a geo-physical survey in June 2017. The study was funded by the Heritage Council, and was used in conjunction with architectural drawings and archeology to avoid unnecessary disturbance of historical remains. We are very grateful for these smaller grants that allowed us to know more and share more about the castle history before construction started. Engineering & Sewage We worked with John Creed Engineering for structural and sewage design.The site was challenging since there is an abundance of clay, resulting in poor overall drainage. Initially we thought a very shallow but large drainage field would be best, However, after we did the test archeology, the septic system was redesigned to be a sand filter with a significantly smaller footprint. This lessened the archeological impact.
ARCHEOLOGY
Creating the Design Our work really started in mid 2017 when we met with David O'Brien, an architectural technician who had a lot of experience with Planning, although not with the major conservation needs of our project. He readily accepted the challenge, and drew up some initial floor plans. It was our intent to utilize all three areas of the existing buildings: tower, house and agricultural building for a combination of private living and event space. Our team was justifiably concerned with our limited budget. We engaged Wexford Quantity Surveyor (estimator), Sarah Stafford to estimate as best we all could, with limited designs and knowledge of the future. Not surprisingly, the estimate resulted in the dreaded "M" (million) word, with the basic project - yikes! About 1/3 of the estimates were indirect: Value Added Tax ((13.5 or 23%), contingency and various fees including general contractor. We planned to do our work gradually in phases, with Liz acting as the project manager, and take on some finish work ourselves as we learned. We met Ed Byrne and did some training at the Traditional Lime Company, which gave us more confidence about working with lime mortar and what we could do ourselves. Ed knew a lot about traditional methods and materials, including green oak, and was invaluable as a consultant throughout the whole project.. Initial Application for Planning In January 2018 we submitted our initial application to Wexford County Council for planning permissions. David O'Brien handled all of the process for us in addition to doing our drawings. The period for review was eight weeks. In late March 2018 we were notified of a Request for Further Information, or RFI. Request for Further Information The RFI content was drafted by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and then was summarized by Wexford County Council. The RFI had 17 different points requiring resolution and covered all three buildings. Methodology statements and specifications for materials were needed. The main observations was that our team did not have enough credentials/experience for the project, and thus we went on a quest for additional team members. During this phase we engaged Michael Tierney, Conservation Architect, and Bena Stutchbury, who had helped us with our castle search, as expert consultants. We had six months to submit our response. The emails, documents and plans were flying around , and multiple people with duplicate or conflicting opinions. We often had one or two team members out of the loop and had to catch them up. Liz tried periodic conference calls with the whole team, similar to her normal work for international projects, but it was difficult to coordinate schedules and technology. In August 2018 David O'Brien coordinated all of the updated submissions from the team and we submitted the new stack of documents.. Celebrate! Permissions Granted! We had initial notification that the permissions were granted in mid-September, only a few weeks after our RFI submission. Hooray! We were delighted and excited! We had to wait a few more weeks in case there were any objections, and we got final grant notification on October 17th 2018. We were VERY grateful to all of the people who helped us with this phase and guided us towards completion!
