Refurbishment of Kilkenny Castle playground begins in May

The Office of Public Works (OPW) has announced that an extensive €100K refurbishment of the children’s playground at Kilkenny Castle Park is due to commence on May 13. The work being undertaken includes the installation of some new play equipment and a replacement of the rubber surfaces. Works are estimated to take two weeks and are due to be completed by end of May.

The upgraded park has been designed to ensure that children of all abilities can play side by side with the inclusion of a roundabout that will accommodate wheelchairs and a sensory wall specifically designed for children with special needs.

Colm Mangan of Kilkenny Castle said “Kilkenny Castle Park playground is such a popular playground for locals and visitors alike and we are very excited to be able to make an investment of this scale at the park. However, the nature and scale of the upgrade means that we have had to wait for a period of dry weather to begin works and this meant closing the park across the months of April and May.

“The park was first created almost 11 years ago and in that time many hundreds of thousands of children have played here. The upgrade will ensure that children can continue to play here in safety and in comfort.”

2019 is the 50th year that Kilkenny Castle has been in the care of the OPW.  Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to see the house and walk through its fifty acres of rolling parkland with mature trees and an abundance of wildlife. Other features include a formal terraced rose garden, woodlands and a man-made lake, which were added in the nineteenth century. There is also a tearoom and several orienteering trails for visitors to enjoy