Purchase of Dowth estate as National Park to be announced by ministers today

550 acres of lands in Boyne Valley containing Neolithic monuments

Ireland is set to get only its second National Park on the eastern side of the country when the Government today announces the purchase of the Dowth estate in the Boyne Valley.

Minister for Local Government, Darragh O'Brien, and Minister of State for Heritage, Malcolm Noonan, are due in east Meath this morning to announce that the State has acquired the 550-acre estate on which there are 16 known monuments, six are thought to date to the Neolithic period.

A major educational and research project is understood to be an element of the future plans for the Meath property.

The estate was put on the market by Devenish Nutrition earlier this year with Sherry Fitzgerald and Christies International Real Estate, with an asking price of €10 million for the entire.

The estate was visited by Tanaiste Micheal Martin earlier this year, and has also seen visits from Princess Anne of Great Britain, and the former Minister for Culture and Heritage, Josepha Madigan, who viewed the discovery of Neolithic art on monuments on the farm in 2018.

The estate has been home for the past decade to food production research firm and former Meath GAA team sponsors, Devenish Nutrition, who reunited an Netterville Manor, a significant Victorian country house, with the lands.

While the international company has been using the soils of the Meath lands for animal nutrition research purposes, Dr Owen Brennan, executive chairman of Devenish and his wife, Dr Alice Stanton, have had a lifelong interest in the archaeology and heritage of the area.

The Netterville Institution was once part of the Dowth estate until Viscount Netterville, who lived at Dowth, bequeathed 60 acres for the building of an alms house for widows and orphans in 1877. Also a school, the father of John Boyle O'Reilly, the poet and patriot, taught there.

The site includes an old Norman tower, the ruins of a medieval sixth century church, and associated graveyard.

The previously unknown tomb discovered in 2018 cemetery comprises burial chambers and evidence of a large enclosing kerb of stones and of a cairn that once covered the tombs. The structural remains are estimated to date to around 3,300 BC. A number of stones bearing characteristic megalithic art, similar to the stones at Newgrange and Knowth, were also discovered.

Dowth Hall and Netterville Manor was described as “one of the oldest farms in the world” is on the market with Sherry Fitzgerald and Christies International Real Estate.

The 552 acres (223 hectares) of pasturelands and woodland are bounded by the River Boyne, with Dowth Hall at the focal point of the estate, a true four-bay, three- storey over basement Georgian country house.

Dating from 1745, this regal home was built by the sixth Viscount of Netterville. Thanks to the present owners, the home is in fine shape for a thorough restoration. The main house is a substantial structure, a magnificent example of its era. Common belief holds that Lord Netterville employed the most renowned architect at the time, George Darley to design this country pile.

Darley’s designs are also characteristically linked to the Tholsel building in Drogheda and to Dunboyne Castle. The formal front façade is treated with dressed Ardbraccan limestone, similar to Leinster House, the 1921 Custom House restoration and Ardbraccan House.

George Darley’s designs were frequently complemented by Robert West’s work. His designs were flamboyant and frequently featured birds thanks to his passion for ornithology, all of which are characteristically present at Dowth Hall.

The walled garden is vast in size and is ready to be planted, rejuvenated and reinstated to its former glory.

Devenish Nutrition have been operating at ‘Lands at Dowth’ Global Lighthouse Farm, striving to produce zero carbon beef and lamb by developing a dynamic and healthy ecosystem. The Devenish strategy ‘One Health, from Soil to Society’ emphasises the importance of maximising nutrient uptake in soil, plants, animals and the environment as key and interconnected components of the value foodchain. Their HeartLand project in particular has caught the attention of many. This project has been developed to create economically and environmentally sustainable livestock products of enhanced nutritional value through pasture-based production systems. They used 36 hectares of land (86 acres) in Dowth, splitting the lands into pastures with different grazing swards.

Ireland's current National Parks are at Burren, Co Clare, Connemara, Co Galway; Glenveagh, Co Donegal; Killarney, Co Kerry; Wild Nephin in Mayo; and the Wicklow Mountains.