Farming 70 suckler cows on the Balgree hills located near Carnaross, Co. Meath, is Malachy Plunkett and his two sons John and Tomás. The Plunkett family has recently undertaken an ambitious project to restore the surface of an old cobble yard on their farm to its former glory.
Agriland paid a visit to the yard to find out how the project came about.
Building restoration
The farm operates a suckler to beef enterprise and located on the farm is a courtyard of old farm buildings which dates back to the late 1700s.
John explained that he was always interested in restoring the old buildings and four years ago, got a grant under the traditional farm building measure of the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) to restore the buildings.
The scheme is managed by the Heritage Council in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
“The maximum funding available over the lifetime of the scheme is €25,000 and the funding will cover up to a maximum of 75% of the costs of the restoration project,” he said.
Four years ago, the shed roofs were restored with traditional slates and any lats or rafters that needed repaired were also fixed or replaced.
“Anything we could salvage we used, and we sourced some blue bangor slates secondhand to match the original ones. We were awarded €9,000 the last time,” John added.
Field stone cobble restoration
This restoration work took place fours years ago, following on from which the family contacted the Heritage Council.
“They (the council) suggested we may get grant aided on restoration and reinstatement of the traditional field stone cobble that was in the yard 250 years ago,” John said.
“We got approved for the grant and the toughest part of the job on our part was finding enough of the stone on our farm here. Grading them, washing them and hand picking them was very time consuming,” he said.
“We did a 140m2 border of the yard. Local contractor Rocks Road Stone based in Moynalty, Co. Meath, did the job. They’re specialists in conservation projects.
“Because we’re doing it in a traditional manner, there were no modern techniques allowed.”
The process
The first step of the process was to clear the surface. After this, the area was blinded in quarry dust before the cobbles were set in the pea gravel.
The cobbles are bedded in a gravel binder and were tightened in place with a rubber mallet.
“In other parts of the country, they were bedded in a clay binder, but in the Carnaross area, the substrata is all gravel,” John explained.
“Because of this, the cobbles were traditionally bedded in a pea gravel here. We sourced this from a quarry located near Carnaross.”
The cobble is placed as closely as possible and then the joints are filled in with a fine sand.
As the pictures below indicate, the old cobbles were in the format of a border surrounding the courtyard buildings. In the past, the internal area of the courtyard was not cobbled, but referred to as ‘metalled’.
It was decided that the preservation work would replicate how the yard would have traditionally looked.
As the images above show, most of the old cobbles had been removed over the years through wear and tear, however some areas still remained. John said that all present cobbles were salvaged and retained in the restoration work.
The yard had been concreted over in the recent past which John said “spoiled the character of the courtyard”. This was removed before restoration got underway and groundworks were carried out by Jack McNamee Plant Hire.
The Heritage Council will decide how much it will allocate towards the project, with up to 75% of the costs possibly grant-aided.
The sheds have been in place in the courtyard since the late 1700s and with the efforts that are being made to preserve these traditional buildings and features, they will no doubt remain standing on the Carnaross farm long into the future.