Clare County Council appointed Lambert Smith Hampton as lead consultant and Building Surveyor of an integrated consultant team to undertake detailed condition surveys to prepare reports advising on current condition and liabilities associated with the Shannon Heritage estate, across the Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Craggaunowen Castle & Knappogue Castle sites.

The Challenge

• LSH successfully won a public tender for this instruction, due to the strong team of specialists we assembled and our experience in this field of work on heritage assets and surveys of multi-unit portfolios.
• The rewarding instruction involved pulling together a large experienced team of consultants, 17 in total, including our own in-house experts, for example Cost Managers. To survey and advise upon an extremely varied and unusual estate ranging from C16th Castles through to replica crannogs and modern buildings. The majority of the surveyed assets were Protected Structures and Monuments, including buildings of significant cultural and national significance, for example the world famous Bunratty Castle.
• We had to carefully manage the surveys around busy and fully functioning tourist attractions. Placing H&S at the forefront of all site decisions, working closely with the Shannon Operations team and Clare County Council.

Our Solution

• To enable effective management of such a large consultant team, we placed a Director level resource solely in charge of client liaison and management of resources. Which included preparing an overall master programme and more detailed per-site programmes.
• In relation to output we provided detailed assessments, synopsis of the primary findings within our overarching report, which was further distilled into a one-page dashboard style summary.
• Our lead Director prepared and presented the findings to the elected members of the Council, within the council chamber. With time allocated for a Council Q&A session.

The Results

• Successful completion of a 54 Nr. surveys, covering 11,471m2, generating detailed costed condition assessments over a ten-year window. Individually scored on a Condition – Priority matrix to assist in good, risk-based estate management.

Review of Shannon Heritage Clare Sites Commences

Bunratty Castle

Craggaunowen Castle

Knappogue Castle