From this week’s Galway City Tribune – An oasis of calm will be created in the garden of St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church to entice the public to take time out in the heart of the city to help their mental health.

A grant of €140,000 from the Communities Recognition Fund has been allocated to erect flood lighting on the building and tower of the iconic medieval church and to tidy up the grounds and do planting on the west side of the site opposite Church Lane.

The wellness garden was started in an informal way during lockdown when the church installed three large benches which have proved hugely popular for visitors and locals looking to relax in the only green space in the commercial centre apart from Eyre Square.

With the grant, the lighting can be purchased and a more formal garden created in a sensitive way among the ancient headstones that lay there.

The Rector, Very Reverend Lynda Peilow, said as they were an eco-congregation, there are plans to introduce a ‘bug hotel’ and an area to attract bees as well as more organised flower beds that can then be used to decorate the church.

A design team has been appointed in the last fortnight to draw up plans for the heritage site, which will have to be carefully managed due to the presence of graves.
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the June 9 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.