New hostel accommodation set for Co Kilkenny town

Seamus Kelly, a well-known stonemason from West Street, has been giving Callan's old Bacon Factory a new lease of life.

Seamus is transforming the old factory into a multipurpose unit which will include hostel accommodation along with common/recreation room - there is already an art gallery which is already up and running in the building.

The art space has been given to the Trasna art group, who have already transformed one section and called it The Powerhouse, a new community-led gallery and performance space. 

Seamus showed this correspondent the old Smokehouse where the bacon was smoked and cured. All the old rails are still in place as are the hooks that the sides of bacon hung on. Those will be removed shortly, but Seamus wants to preserve as much of the history of the building.

For many years it was the site of Callan Bacon Factory, but before that building ever existed there was a hydroelectric power station on the site. Prior to rural electrification in Ireland there were many towns in Ireland with their own Community Hydro plants, but all those were closed down when the ESB rolled out electricity to all over the country.

Seamus is a huge advocate of solar energy and all the new buildings within the complex have been installed with solar panels, making the complex fully self-sufficient. He is hoping to have the hostel up and running by the summer.