The iNUA Collection has launched a new partnership with Irish Trees at Dunsany Castle Nature Reserve with plans to expand its ancient woodlands.
The first initiative will come from The iNUA Collection’s Tullamore Court Hotel, which has arranged to plant over 3,500 Native Irish trees, including alder, birch, oak, willow, Rowan and Scots Pine, over the next five years through its partnership with Irish Trees at Dunsany.
It will then be rolled out across The iNUA Collection’s hotel portfolio.
'850 Year Old Estate'
"Our plans are initially to plant 3,500 native trees over the next five years starting with Tullamore Court Hotel, planting trees in person at Dunsany Nature Reserve with many of our corporate clients, as well as with team members," said Sean O’Driscoll, CEO of The iNUA Collection.
"This is the first step in creating our own iNUA Collection Woodland and we look forward to time spent planting a broad range of native Irish trees with our clients, colleagues and friends, to create wild, abundant, and biodiverse habitats that will never be harvested on this 850-year-old Estate."
Nature Reserve
Dunsany Nature Reserve in County Meath has 750 acres dedicated exclusively to rewilding and is the first Irish project to be recognised by the European Rewilding Network and Ireland’s largest private rewilding project.
Naturalist and film-maker Randal Plunkett, 21st Baron of Dunsany, took the decision in 2014 to rewild his family’s demesne, creating a 750-acre nature reserve.
Rewilding
Rewilding means removing all grazing animals from the property, gearing towards restoring ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself, and creating native forests, fields, springs, streams and marshes.
The iNUA Collection claims this has led to increased biodiversity, including sightings of rare local bird species not recorded in the area for a long time such as red kites, woodpeckers, barn owls, long-eared owls, herons and sparrow hawks, along with red deer, foxes, otters, badgers, pine martens, hares and stoats.
'Ireland's Natural Heritage'
"We’ll be able to visit our trees over the years to come and see our legacy grow, as we make a real investment into Ireland's natural heritage," said Sean O’Driscoll.
"Tullamore Court Hotel is the first hotel to sign up for this initiative and it is the first of many, as teams across the Collection are keen to be involved.”
