National Trust: At least £300,000 already spent on post Storm Éowyn clean-up

It has been almost five months since Storm Éowyn caused chaos across Northern Ireland.

The red weather alert brought winds of more than 90mph when it hit on the 24th of January.

And at the peak of the storm, NIE Networks said around 285,000 households and businesses were impacted by power cuts.

The National Trust said the clean-up operation has already cost them at least £300,000.

We spoke to Tree and Woodland advisor for the Northern Ireland National Trust, Gregor Fulton, at Mount Stewart in County Down. The property initially saw the loss of 10,000 trees.

Mr Fulton gave us an update on the progress: "We're sitting at the minute of a cost of £300,000. That's just to get us to the stage we are at now... It's still going to go up as there are months of work that still needs to be done. We are going to have to repair paths and fix them over the years. It is not an easy task.'

"Whenever the storm first impacted, it was a lot of doom and gloom and a lot of stressed people. We just didn't know how we would get things moving forward. Now there is definitely an uplift in the mood, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Mr Fulton praised the hard work of the wider community, for rallying round to help the team get back on their feet: "It's been a very busy five months. The teams across all our properties have been working tirelessly. We're starting to hear the chainsaws a wee bit less now... but it has been a really big effort on everybody's part."

"The volunteers have been unbelievable. The amount of time and hours that they've put into it. We had so many trees down beside properties and beside paths. It was a mammoth task to get the paths re-opened."

"The number of trees that have come out have just been unbelievable. We have most of the visitor access open again, which is credit to the staff and the volunteers here."

Although there is still lots of work to be done, he said the progress has been huge: "The majority of the trees are clear from the areas that were totally devastated. There are still ones in the woodlands, but from the 10,000 we first stated," it's great progress.

"We don't have a big team; it’s a core staff of about ten. We would not have got as far without the volunteers; they gave up their time so freely."

Among the 10,000 trees lost at Mount Stewart, the team do their best to sell it to be reused, keeping it as local as possible: "You've got firewood that comes out of it, you've got timber that goes to the construction industry that will go to sawmills. More bespoke timber will be for furniture."