A £5.2 million plan to turn one of the most beautiful old estates in the midlands into a tourist attraction has been put to Bord Failte. The Belvedere estate, on the shores of Lough Ennel, features the Jealous Wall, Ireland's largest folly, Belvedere House and its famous gardens. It is owned by Westmeath County Council.
The council has drawn up a plan to restore Belvedere House, widely recognised as one of the top 10 heritage properties in Ireland, its parkland and the gardens with the aim of attracting up to 100,000 visitors a year.
The council has owned the 160-acre estate since 1981 and has spent considerable amounts of money maintaining and upgrading the gardens and the house, which had fallen into disrepair.
A storm in 1990 blew down part of the Jealous Wall, which had been built by the First Earl of Rochfort in 1760 to block his brother George's view following a dispute.
Now the council wants to spend £425,000 restoring the wall, a further £1.1 million on the stables area, £682,000 on the parklands, £430,000 on roads and car-parks and £172,000 on marketing and staff.
The plan envisages spending £1.1 million on the restoration of the house, which was originally built as a hunting lodge, according to the Westmeath County Secretary, Mr Ciaran McGrath, who has co-ordinated the plan.
The council has replaced the roof on the house with the intention of making the building the centre of the estate again. Visitors would enter the house from basement level and be shown through the next two floors.
"We intend to restore the old kitchens and bring the house back to what it was like 200 years ago when it was built. When the visitors emerge from the house they overlook the wonderful view of the lake," he said.
The restored stables would have a covered courtyard to provide shelter for visitors on wet days.
It is also intended to use a wide range of interpretative techniques to tell the story of the last 200 years.
The restoration of the gardens, said Mr McGrath, would present a mosaic which integrated the environment, the heritage and the gardens to create a pleasure ground resonant of the past but relevant to the future.
"The four strands - environment, heritage, gardens and pleasure grounds - will be carefully woven together into a cohesive experience, evoking the romantic lifestyle of the Anglo-Irish estates of 200 years ago," he said.
Mr McGrath said the estate was well known and used by local people in the midlands, but if the plan was accepted it would be marketed on a much wider basis.
"It is less than 60 miles from Dublin, and we will be expecting to get a lot of visitors from there and the whole of Leinster. It's only about 90 minutes from the capital and that is an acceptable length of drive for a visit," he said.
"We hope to develop the estate as a place of entertainment for the whole family, with play areas for children, and of course the covered area in the stables with its restaurants will be a major attraction," he said.
The plan also includes an area for corporate functions and meetings in the main house, and this too should prove to be an attractive development, he said.
"The estate is a wonderful asset to the area, and the councillors, who have been most supportive of the plan, are pushing it as hard as they can."
If the independent project management committee of Bord Failte accepts the plan, the council should receive a grant of £3.5 million and a loan of £1.2 million, with equity of £600,000, to provide funding for the project.
At a recent meeting of the council, the County Manager, Mr Jack Taaffe, said the marketing plan would involve expenditure of £40,000 in 1998 and £60,000 in 1999.
He said the number of staff involved would be nine full-time workers and 10 part-time staff, and it was estimated that a further 36 jobs would be generated indirectly by the project.