Plans to transform historic County Roscommon property into ‘unique tourist destination’

Ambitious plans to transform historic Kingston Hall on the former Rockingham estate in Boyle into a “unique tourist destination” have taken a significant step forward.

The company behind the proposal, Kingston Hall Estate Ltd, is working towards securing planning permission to fully restore and convert Kingston Hall and its grounds into a visitor-focused destination with an accommodation offering.

A major step forward is the recent publication of a tender by the company seeking an architect led integrated design team for the project. Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is February 20th and contract duration is estimated at eight months.

The company specifies that the design should focus on creating a “unique tourist destination” at the site by providing a “luxury tourist accommodation and wellness offering”.

The aim is to achieve this through the “sympathetic refurbishment and conversion” of the existing ruinous buildings, dovecote tower, courtyard, underground cellars, walled gardens, and agricultural outhouses in line with relevant building standards.

In the tender documents, Kingston Hall Estate Ltd describes the site as being of “huge heritage, architectural and cultural significance”.

The developers outline in the tender that that site is ideally located, just 800m from Lough Key Forest & Activity Park Visitor Centre. In close proximity also is a cut stone bridge over a canal that leads downstream to both Lough Keel and Lough Key lakes.

The tender notes that it is recognised by a number of bodies that the visitor accommodation sector in the Lough Key area “is less developed than other more mature tourism destinations”.

“For context, the park attracts in excess of 150,000 people annually, with over 80,000 visitors participating in the visitor activities,” said the company.

Kingston Hall Estate Ltd said the project would not only create a memorable experience, allow visitors an opportunity to immerse themselves in local history and stay at a historic and culturally significant property, but also“increase overall visitor dwell time in the area”.

“A tourist attraction merged with a tourist accommodation and wellness offering would grow and strengthen the existing clustering of attractions within the Lough Key area and secure overnight stays in the region,” it said.

In August of last year, the company was awarded €300,000 in Just Transition funding in order to complete project design and obtain planning permission for the development.

Kingston Hall was built by the King family of Boyle in the early 1770s.