SUSTAINABILITY (The circular economy, the 3 P’s)
- People (our team, those who visit and those living in the community)
- Planet (how we protect and help and play our part best we can for this and future generations)
- Profit, or should I say survive, by us surviving we generate enough income to keep doing what we must, and this helps the local economy survive also.


The Planet
Birr Castle Demesne is a fully registered charity with a core mission in education, inspiration and sharing our rich heritage. We are very fortunate to be in a unique and beautiful landscape.
Our demesne is classified as a wildlife reserve, our wildflower meadow is Appendix 1 which means it is an exceptional example of a wildflower meadow and it is protected by law, a feast for the eyes when in full bloom.
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We are in year 2 of our Wild Connections Educational project, which is all about re-connecting people with Nature, we introduced our Forest Bathing area in 2021 and this has been very well received and again helping us all understand the benefits of being in nature. Between 2021 and 2023 we planted in the region of 1500 trees, many native, and on site we have over 5000 species of trees and plants from all over the world. The greater estate is responsible for our Giants Grove project which is the largest plantation of Redwoods outside California. Redwoods were found in Ireland before the last Ice Age so in essence we are bringing them home. BCD is home to a wide variety to native wildlife, some of which we are trying to capture on video so we can share this with the wider community. All in all, we are all about what we can preserve and how we can contribute on site. Our printed items are all printed on paper from sustainable planted forests. Our new Café operator will focus on local produced organic ingredients where they can.
Our People and our Community
We run many (around 20 per year) free of charge community events and we work closely with groups from disadvantaged communities. All the town schools have complimentary access to the site during the academic year, we are also working in partnership with our local educational training board on Horticultural Fetac level 3, 4 and 5 and several other courses they run. Many of our team are with us a long time and we ensure our team are part of our story on a day-to-day basis.

