Over the month of September a lot of Work was Completed on the Campsite. As you can see from the Photos the grass is now growing on the camping Area. After the contractor clearing the trees completed his work we firstly gathered as much Gadget Timber that we could from it and stored it on the site for further use.

Then the Hymacs and Heavy earth moving Equipment moveed in. They up rooted all the stumps of the trees over 350 of them and took them to the lowest point on the perimeter. They then proceeded to strip off the topsoil and stored this at one end of the site. The job then was to level the site. This was done by splitting the site in 2 and excavating down the top of the site to a centre level and pushing this excavated soil down to the lower level thus giving us a level Site.

The next decision's to be made were what services we needed in the site and how much Camping area we would leave, and also how much Carpark and building area we would leave stoned. After a few deliberations by the campsite Team, where decisions where made very quick we decided on the following work schedule.

1. We put in 6 site drainage crossings to drain the camping area 

2. We put in a main Site drain at the head of the site to take any water from the field behind which was at a higher level

3. We installed a 100mm Ducting pipe from the end of the roadway all around the perimeter of the site which would serve any further installation of ESB or site Lighting.About 12 access chambers to pull cables where left on this line.

4. We installed a 3/4" water pipe from the end of the laneway where we hope to get the council to connect us soon. This water pipe again was installed around the perimeter of the site leaving 6  upstand pipes at various areas of the site for water taps. At each of these areas a road gulley was piped into the main drain to take any overflow of water, basically making it a hard standing area for water.

5. We installed all site sewerage. Which included a 100mm pipe back to the position of our future toilet areas, piped into a new septic tank including all manholes etc. We then had a percolation area completed to finish off the septic tank. 

6.At this stage we imported some 40 loads of Topsoil from a local building site which was sourced by Scout Leader Sean Cunningham at no charge saving us a lot of money.The contractor spread the topsoil over the camping area.

7. We then harrowed and levelled the site ready for seeding. 2 of our scout leaders Owen Woods and Conan Connolly done this work for us. They then sowed the campsite with Lawn seed and added a bit of fertilizer because of the time of year to boost up the grass before the end of the growing season.And this did the trick as you can see we had grass in 3 weeks.

8. Next our Contractor stoned the carpark area and rolled it thus giving us ample room for parking and for further buildings etc

8. We then stone our entrance roadway right down to the back of Kingspan approx 800mtrs this was a big lob but one we needed to do to give us access to the site. We put in a few layby's on this to let traffic pass and also a few drains under road to let water run under to the nearby river.

9. The last job was to fit a gate o the site to secure it from any unauthorized use.

All this under site work was well planned and leaves us now able to continue to develop the site without having to dig up the Camping area which is good forward planning.

As you can see from the photo's the site is looking really well and we are hoping to use it next summer. This is proberly a year ahead of Schedule. This is down to the great work of the Campsite team of Liam, Jimmy, Bobby, Phillip, Marianne, Conan and Owen. We also would like to thank the P+F committee and all the parents for their support in Fundraising for this. To our treasurers Kitty and Colm for collecting and keeping check of money and for them organizing to pay the bills. To our section leaders for collecting the dues weekly which 1 euro goes directly to the Campsite.

A Big thank you one and all it was a great team effort.

Good news was had recently when it was announced at the AGM that the Scouting Ireland Campsite support fund had awarded Carrick scouts with 12,000 euro for the first phase of work to our Campsite a great boost to the committee.

The campsite dosen't stop here and over the next few weeks this committee will be meeting to decide on there next stage of work for the coming year. We will keep you informed here at www.carrickscouts.ie 

A Tree planting Ceremony will take place on Sunday 28th Oct by the Chief Scout Of Ireland Martin Burbrige to mark the official opening of our Group Campsite. 

The dream has become a reality !!!!