Pictured: Clonleigh Parish Church in Lifford
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is inviting applications to its Historic Structures Fund 2025 until Friday, January 17 at 4 p.m. The aim of the Historic Structures Fund is to assist the conservation and enhance historic structures and buildings for the broader benefit of communities and the public.
“The Historic Structures Fund features a number of changes this year notably being confined to larger projects” explained Collette Beattie, County Donegal Architectural Conservation Officer.
“The scheme allows for larger scale conservation works in heritage structures which are deemed to be significant and in need of urgent support. Donegal has a unique built environment with many Protected Structures, buildings on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage and buildings within Architectural Conservation Areas that could avail of this grant. These buildings are a vital part of our heritage, and many are in need of investment to ensure their regeneration and continued use into the future. Hopefully this scheme may be of interest to some of the owners and custodians of these historic structures.”
Up to €3.2 million is available nationwide under the scheme and offers grants from €50,000 to €200,000 covering 50% of the eligible costs and focuses on larger scales projects involving heritage structures, where;
- A clear community or public benefit has been demonstrated or
- A clear residential benefit has been demonstrated
The conservation works must be designed, specified and overseen on site by appropriately qualified and experienced building conservation professional/s and there needs to be a comprehensive and sound methodology to accompany the application.
“Projects can involve significant heritage structure in public ownership or those in private ownership where there is a tangible public benefit” said Collette Beattie, Conservation Officer, Donegal County Council.
“Applications must be submitted to Donegal County Council in the first instance by the deadline of 4pm, January 17. Each local authority must then assess the applications and put a small number of the strongest applications forward to the National Built Heritage Service of the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage for consideration.
“Last year, three projects were funded in County Donegal. Funding was secured for works to the roof and spire of St Patrick’s Church in Killygordan (€50,000), conservation to the windows of Clonleigh Parish Church in Lifford (€25,000) and roof repairs to Fort Stewart in Killydonnell (€28,000).”
If you would like to find out more about this grant further details about the Historic Structures Fund an application form can be downloaded from the County Donegal Architectural Conservation Office website at https://www.donegalcoco.ie/en/
