Paul Kavanagh’s Pond Restoration Honoured in European Heritage Awards
Hidden within the historic Altidore estate in County Wicklow lies a quietly transformative project that has just made Irish heritage history. The recent restoration of the estate’s large ornamental pond led by Paul Kavanagh of Landscape.ie has been selected as Ireland’s first finalist in the European Heritage Europa Nostra Awards. While the award speaks volumes about the cultural and ecological value of the project, the real story begins at the muddy bottom of a forgotten water feature and ends with a revived landscape of elegance, biodiversity, and craftsmanship.
A Forgotten Feature, a Vision Restored.
Originally constructed as a key element of the Altidore Castle landscape, the pond had, over the decades, filled with hundreds of cubic metres of silt and debris. The marl base—a rare and sensitive material—had not been touched in over 70 years. Enter Paul Kavanagh, whose 40 years of landscape restoration experience include similar heritage sites like Lyons Demesne in Laois, Kilboy Estate in Tipperary, and Dunran Castle in Wicklow. Kavanagh was approached by the Emmet family, current custodians of the estate, to restore the pond while preserving its structural and ecological integrity.
Working closely with conservation architect Ann Cuffe Fitzgerald and ecological consultant Paul Murphy, Kavanagh’s team set out to delicately extract the sludge without disturbing the marl base or historic stone walls. This involved precision drainage using multiple sludge pumps, constructing a temporary stone access road, and using specialised machinery, including a 25-tonne track excavator and 9-tonne dumper.
Conservation by Hand and Heart.
Not everything can be done by machine. A submerged rubble wall sump, historic stonework, and the collapsed conduit at the castle end required hand-digging, repointing in traditional lime mortar, and patient stone restoration. Vegetation management was guided by ecological best practices: Invasive Gunnera was removed, while appropriate native planting was planned to support aquatic biodiversity and visual harmony. Perhaps most telling of the project’s authenticity was the care taken to preserve and showcase the historical structure. As the pond was slowly drained and cleared, previously hidden features re-emerged: rubble walls, water inlets, and clay slopes once shaped to complement the castle’s silhouette. The pond once again frames the castle with a sharp, reflective viewpoint not seen in living memory.
The estate is open to the public for house tours throughout May and is set to host its inaugural biodiversity walk on Saturday, May 24, offering visitors an opportunity to experience the rejuvenated pond and its thriving ecosystem firsthand.
Read more here in the Irish Independent about the award.