Summerhill Tidy Towns restoring ancient walls

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Before and After... A section of the walls which were overgrown with ivy and in danger of decaying completely.

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A restored section of the demense wall around the Langford estate.

Noelle Finegan

Published: Fri 30 Dec 2022, 6:03 PM

Work is ongoing on a major project being undertaken by Summerhill Tidy Towns to restore the walls of Summerhill House Demense, which is all that remains of the 100-room mansion that was once home to Baron Langford.

The project involves the restoration of approximately a quarter of a mile of wall along the Kilcock/Dunboyne Road.

Gerard Gannon of Summerhill Tidy Towns explained that the project began about five years ago when they initially got Meath County Council to kerb all along the wall and backfilled it to create a verge. Around 1,000 spring and summer bulbs were also planted all along the wall, creating a colourful display from spring.

It has been a priority of Summerhill Tidy Towns to restore the wall for some years and between grants, fundraising and donations, they hope to soon have enough money to complete the project. The work is being undertaken by stone mason Kenny Travers.

"In 2019 by raising local funds we managed to restore approximately one fifth of the wall and now it is our hope to complete the rest. The cost of getting this project completed stands at €130,000. To date we have received €60,000 from the Trim Municipal District funds with the help of our local councillor, Joe Fox. Hora Homes are about to start building fabulous Georgian houses just the opposite side of the road and they have very kindly gifted us a further €10,000. We have also secured a further €10,000 from another source. So while we are delighted to be in such a good financial position we are still quite a bit short of getting this project completed," said Gerard.

He explained that the demesne wall once enclosed the land and mansion of the Rowley family estate with the title of Baron Langford and the wall is all that remains of the once jewel of Irish architecture 'Summerhill House', built circa 1700.

"The wall currently is in a state of collapse and could be described as an eye sore. I feel that if it's not restored soon it will be too late and will just collapse and crumble and will be lost for ever, just like Summerhill House. Now what a shame would that be on all of us.

"It is a big project but a very worthwhile project."