Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland

Hillsborough Castle is the official residence of the British Royal Family in Northern Ireland and has been the residence of the Secretary of State since the 1970s. The Castle was built in the 1770s and is set on 96 acres of ornamental grounds. The Castle and grounds have recently undergone a £24 million restoration that has seen the Castle open its gates to the public as one of Northern Irelands leading visitor attractions.

StormHarvester’s technology has been deployed within the site’s attenuation pond to ensure the pond provides flood resilience to downstream properties while at the same time allowing the pond to remain full of water between flood events and therefore contribute to the aesthetics of the ornamental gardens on-site. Prior to StormHarvester’s involvement on the project our client feared that the aesthetic of a large empty and often muddy attenuation pond would take from the overall aesthetics sough through the restoration works. By allowing the pond to remain full or partially full of water this fear has been allayed.

By holding water in the pond in this way it has been possible to significantly reduce the quantity of suspended solids discharged off the estate. The pond is now acting as a large settlement basin increasing the settlement time of suspended solids on site by 98%.