News
Wrapping Up a Brilliant Year for Montalto
2024 has had its difficulties, but overall has been an incredible year here at Montalto Estate. Thus, we thought we’d take a look back at what we had accomplished in the past year!
This year provided us with the birth of a few new events, gatherings and special deals for our visitors, to ensure you never miss the latest from Montalto, keep an eye on our What’s On page: https://montaltoestate.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows
Parents could bring their young children to our weekly café meetups, which provided babies & toddlers a free snack, toys and an opportunity to interact with other kids their age, whilst letting young parents bond and meet new friends with similar interests!
We facilitated a brand new location for parkrun in Northern Ireland throughout our Trails & Gardens, a fantastic opportunity for locals of all ages and abilities to come together, get active, and enjoy the beautiful surroundings on offer. We believe parkrun fosters a strong sense of community spirit in the area and we hope it encourages participants to embrace an active lifestyle and create a positive impact on the overall health of our community. Locally known as one of the toughest parkruns in NI, why not try and tackle the beast yourself!
Our Visitor’s aged 65 and over have received a special discount running Tuesdays weekly, which has become collectively known as Senior’s Tuesdays. A deal in which seniors are granted access to our Trails & Gardens, followed by a selected item from The Café, paired with Tea or Coffee, all for just £10! The results have blossomed into something outstanding, with flocks of seniors attending in groups routinely throughout the Summer and Autumnal periods!
Early in July seen the addition of the all-new Bark Park, a dog-friendly agility and off-lead area located within our Trails & Gardens. This expansive area provides the ‘paw-fect’ setting for Pooch Pics and training facilities. Our opening day included attendance from our friends over at Almost Home Animal Rescue NI, who do their best to ensure no pets go abandoned and mistreated throughout the region. As well as this, we had facilitated doggie-themed stallholders, a raffle to win awesome prizes, Almost Home’s cuddle zone, and an agility time trial for all dog owners to test their might on the new equipment.
Our many family fun-days allowed for some stress-free entertainment, which included BBQs, Train Rides around the gardens, walkabout acts and live musicians. The continuation of this spirit through to our seasonal artisanal markets allowed for some cosy nights in The Carriage Rooms. This allowed local suppliers to showcase their goods with a roof over their heads, providing guaranteed profits from over 2000 visitors per night.
Halloween at Montalto was bigger and better than ever before, with an interactive haunted Halloween trail weaving its way around the majority of our decorated estate. Many hours were put in by the team to ensure the creation, maintenance and safety of our experience was run as efficiently as possible. The Witch’s Cottage was open for visitors to grab some seasonal snaps, with spiderwebs park keeping our young ones entertained through the Autumnal Afternoons! Our Pumpkin Patch was also bigger than ever, with more than 2 and a half thousand pumpkins making their way home with our adventurous attendees!
The final few months have seen the inclusion of many a festive event, enjoyed by those of all ages. Our Christmas Light Switch-On kicked off the holiday season, with Santa Claus coming to visit all of our kids, whilst Santa Paws kept our canine companions entertained. Wreath workshops and Chrimbo Bingo provided us with a chance to let loose and escape for even a few hours.
We have of course had some setbacks along the way. Due to adverse weather conditions, a few of our events had to be rescheduled or worst case completely cancelled due to the number of storms this year. Creating more work for our team after not reaping any rewards for all the hard work poured into preparation and organisation of these activities.
The departure of our Head Chef Paul Ferguson left us unsure of The Cafe’s future direction amidst the search for a worthy replacement, now found in the form of new Head Chef Oonagh Halferty.
Please see our social pages for event highlights, behind the scenes of our gardening team, and general updates regarding the operation of the Estate…
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/montaltoestate/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/montaltoestate/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@montalto.estate
“As 2024 comes to an end, I wanted to take a moment to personally express my sincere gratitude for all of the hard work and dedication of our team throughout the year. As a business, it’s been a difficult year for us in many ways, but there have also been many successes for us to draw on, and that’s thanks to each and every one of us.
To that end, I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished together this year.
We’ve seen some very good team members move on from Montalto, but in turn we’ve been able to welcome new, strong, people, not least of all in Marketing, and our Café.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”
Keith J. Reilly, Operations Director at Montalto Estate
Plan your next visit with us in 2025: https://montaltoestate.com/plan-your-visit/opening-times/
We can’t wait to see where the new year takes us!