Major model makeovers planned for tiny towns and villages

It’s a really big facelift for four really small towns.

Leading tourist destination, the Model Village in Clonakilty, Co Cork, a fully-scaled model of four of West Cork’s best-known towns, has closed for three months for a major revamp and renovation ahead of its 20th anniversary next summer.

Expert model makers have now begun work on what will be the single largest refurbishment in its history.

About 20 buildings have to be replaced, including Bandon’s post office, the town hall, Jeffers Mills, and the courthouse.

Several buildings in Kinsale need minor repairs and in Clonakilty, Shannonvale Mills needs major renovation, and the church roof needs to be replaced.

It is hoped the entire project, which is expected to cost tens of thousands of euro, will be complete by February.

Centre manager Kim McNamara said the repairs and renovations are essential to weather-proof the attraction for the next decade, and are being done during a traditionally quiet period.

“The weather during the last few bad winters has really taken its toll on the models,” she said.

“We have to replace a few models and rebuild several others.

“Each model is an exact 1:24 miniature scale replica of the building it’s modelled on — architecturally correct down to the last detail.

“All the little details like windows, doors, shop front, chimney pots, and drains are added afterwards. So it takes between six to eight weeks to do a single building.”

They also plan to carry out hard-landscaping on the visitor centre’s network of footpaths and walkways, and some landscaping.

The Model Village was opened by former president Mary Robinson on Jul 9, 1994. It has over the years developed the popular Choo Choo Roadtrain, in 2004; an indoor playroom in 2005; an outdoor play area in 2009; and an inter-pretative centre in 2012.

Almost 700,000 people have visited the centre since 1994, including the likes of Cillian Murphy, Pat Shortt, Dara Ó Briain, and Ray D’Arcy.

It is hoped the centre, which will open for weekends only in December, will reopen fully on Feb 16 before planning its 20th anniversary celebrations for July.

Set to scale

The Model Village is a fully-scaled model of the West Cork towns of Clonakilty, Kinsale, Dunmanway and Bandon, which developed along the route of the old West Cork railway line between 1930 and 1950.

Its 1940s-style buildings are built to 1:24 scale with six G-size model trains running between them.

The village was developed by a team of local people trained and supervised by the late master model-maker, Roy Tassel, who died almost two years ago.

All of the village’s models — there are almost 300 replicas of buildings of architectural interest — were built on site from fibreglass and are exact replicas of the originals.

Each town took up to 18 months to build. The model of Clonakilty church took four-and-a-half months alone to build.

Former county architect, Billy Houlihan, who advised on the original development of the model village, is leading the revamp.