Boomhall Trust has said the unanimously approved Outline Planning permission for its proposals to restore Boomhall back to its former glory ‘brings renewed hope for a building that has stood solid, forsaken and awaiting restoration for 60 years’.

Plans to restore Boomhall mansion house have now reached a major milestone, with the Council’s Planning Committee granting outline planning permission to bring the historic building back into use for community benefit.

The outline proposals include community meeting and event spaces, a library and reading room, a place to eat, a day nursery and short stay residential accommodation supporting the house’s community and educational purposes.

The applicant, Boomhall Trust, is a registered charity dedicated to the restoration and conservation of Boomhall.

Boomhall in the early 1900s. The house will be restored to its original state.

placeholder image — Boomhall in the early 1900s. The house will be restored to its original state.

Following the approval, which is expected to be ratified at Full Council later this month, a spokesman for the Trust said the the restored building should endure ‘for a further 250 years’.

Chair of the Planning Committee, Councillor Pat Murphy, said: “By bringing new educational, cultural and community uses to this historic estate, the project will ensure that Boomhall can be enjoyed by future generations and continue to play an active role in the social and cultural life of our district”.

Plans for Boomhall include flexible spaces for community organisations and accommodation for short residential stays linked to community programmes. Neighbouring Foyle Hospice is a community partner, and the Trust hopes to explore with the Hospice how families it supports might benefit from the house and grounds as the project develops. Working with local organisations such as The Greater Shantallow Area Partnership, Developing Healthy Communities and many other partners in the health and wellbeing field, the Trust is developing programmes focused on support for the children and loved ones of people coping with physical and mental issues, alongside programmes for individuals trying to cope with anxiety and bereavement. Easy access to the buildings and surrounding countryside for people with disabilities and additional needs will be central to the design.

Boomhall trust Chairman Jim Sammon said: “Our purpose is to restore Boomhall to the highest conservation standards as a place that local people can use and benefit from every day. We want families facing difficult times to find comfort here, children to discover the joys of the natural world, and for communities to meet, learn and build trust in each other to forge better relationships which help them to peacefully create a better future together. All this can be done whilst retaining the beauty, wonderment and ambience of an eighteenth-century villa and landscape.”

Isabel Marion Weir Johnston, pioneer in women's education and the first woman to enter Trinity College Dublin, was raised at Boomhall.

The Trust said that schools from across Northern Ireland will be welcomed for education programmes exploring how the natural environment can become more resilient to climate change through planned habitat creation, while the estate will offer structured opportunities through environmental partners for practical learning and direct-action, growing trees, protecting wildlife, creating habitats and the care of the natural world when visiting students return to their own localities.

A planned nature nursery will give young children opportunities to learn through outdoor play and discovery, with professional oversight by the Institute of Child Education and Psychology Europe in Maynooth.

Schools from across Ireland will also have facilities to bring pupils on history field trips, with cross-community summer youth work camps focused on peace and reconciliation.