Killeavy Castle Estate located in Newry, Northern Ireland is commencing its next stage of sustainable farm initiatives in September 2021 with the development of a further Estate Garden and Farm Store.
The new Estate Garden will allow for additional vegetables to be grown to provide the freshest of produce for the Estate’s food outlets. This will increase the range of vegetables grown on-site to over 20 varieties across the four seasons. Executive Head Chef, Darragh Dooley said, “since opening, we have developed a name for quality food with the freshest of produce creating delicious, unique seasonal dishes. This new garden and store will allow us to be more creative than ever with our food offering providing enhanced flavours with vegetables grown in our mineral-rich soil and then prepared and served on customers' plates within the restaurant and bar”.
Our Farm Experiences continue to develop with our summer guests recently treated to sheep shearing demonstrations by our farm staff. The addition of the Farm Store will provide visitors with an insight into the process of animal production and storage. Visitors will learn the Farm to Fork process of how the Estate’s Longhorn Cattle and Cheviot Sheep are initially reared, and then how meats are hung, cured, and stored. Additionally, vegetable sowing, tending, picking, and preparing opportunities will be added to the guest experience choices.
The overall development is part-funded by Tourism NI and is due to be completed and open to the public in Spring 2022. General Manager, Jason Foody said “this not only adds to our guest and visitor experience but raises the bar on our targeted goals of sustainability. As the Estate focuses on new green initiatives to eventually become carbon neutral and align to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we continue to lead the way in hospitality”.
As construction and grounds work continues over the coming months we apologise for any inconvenience or disturbance that may be caused to our guests and visitors. We will endeavour to keep the disturbance to a minimum and we look forward to keeping everyone informed of this project as it continues to develop towards an opening date in Spring 2022.