Mourne Wall Restoration Project

Project Update (30th September 2017)

Mourne Wall on the news

In the summer the project team welcomed a crew from UTV Life to capture some of the restoration work that’s been taking place on the Mourne Wall.

The piece, which aired in mid August, gave an insight into why the wall was constructed and the men who built this iconic monument almost 100 years ago. Included in the names of the original wall builders were relatives of those restoring it today from Thomas Rooney & Sons.

UTV Life speak to members of local walking groups Repairs being undertaken on Slieve Bernagh

Progress exceeds expectations – a ‘mountainous’ effort from all

We are delighted to report that progress on the Mourne Wall Restoration Project continues at pace.

At this stage the contractor has completed repairs on 8.40km of wall and across many of the higher peaks.

To date works have been carried out on:

 Slieve Loughshannagh  Slieve Meelbeg

 Slieve Meelmore  Slieve Bearnagh  Slievenaglogh (North)  Slieve Corragh and 

Working in partnership to restore century-old heritage Work on the ‘big one’ gets underway

The section of wall running along is now underway. Standing at 850m above sea level Slieve Donard is the highest of the 15 peaks connected by the 22-mile long Mourne Wall.

The contractors are getting plenty of exercise as they hike around 8km every day just to get to the wall.

The repairs on Slieve Donard amount to around 200 linear metres of collapses.

It is hoped that this section will be completed by the end of November, completing the work for 2017.

Taking to the air

Part of the restoration work on Slieve Donard will involve the placement of numerous capping stones.

This work will require a helicopter to bring these heavy stones – which have been salvaged locally and bagged ready for lifting – to the various repair locations.

Around 400 capping stones in total are due to be air lifted to Donard as well as the 7 mountains already worked on.

This will be the first time that the local stonemasons have needed the intervention of mechanical machinery to rebuild the wall. Up until now, everything has been done by hand, following in the footsteps of their ancestors.

Weather permitting, the first helicopter lifts are scheduled to take place in the second week of October and will complete repairs across the aforementioned mountains.

Facts to date

 Approximately 5,000 man hours worked – in all types of weather  Around 2,000 capping stones put back into place  8.42km of wall across 7 mountains repaired  Actual repairs equates to a linear distance of 700m  Longest single repair to date is 27m on Slieve Bearnagh