Council hopes castle revamp will halt fall in visitor numbers

Visitors to Athlone Castle this year fell to 10,500, amid the news that design consultants have been appointed to devise €2.5 million plans to revamp the tourist attraction in advance of the 800th anniversary in 2010. Hoskins Keogan Lindsay and Event Ltd, a consortium of landscape architects and exhibition designers, was recently given the task of coming up with proposals to upgrade facilities at Athlone's prime historical building and tourist attraction. It's hoped the job will be completed before the end of next year in time to mark the building of the first castle on the site back in 1210. Much talked about in recent times, it's hoped the redevelopment will reverse the decreasing numbers visiting the facility in recent years. Over 12,000 visitors came to Athlone Castle in 2008 but this year that fell by over 1,500, the council confirmed this week. Athlone Town Clerk John Walsh told the Westmeath Independent this week that the design team appointed by the council had begun work on plans to upgrade the interpretative programmes element of the centre. That would also include some changes to the layout within the building, he said. When ready, the proposals will be presented to the Athlone Castle Development Committee and Athlone Town Councillors. The design element is expected to take a number of months to complete however, work should begin in the early part of 2010, which will necessitate the move of Athlone Tourist Office from the castle to the Civic Centre for 2010 season. "The group will look at the themes and how they are interpreted in the castle," Mr Walsh said of the changes the local authority hopes will promote renewed visitor interest in the castle and halt the tourist traffic fall of recent years. "They will also finalise the locations of the exhibitions and agree on the form of interpretation and the technologies that can be used." It's also envisaged that the project will the increase exhibition space on the site by bringing the floors of the keep into use. "It's really about modernising and updating the castle. It's a question of presenting the story in a more modern way with the technology now available, things we didn't have when it first opened to the public in 1991," John Walsh concluded.