Bidding for the former Abbey Grammar School site has concluded with a number of groupings understood to be keen on securing 43,195sqft of city centre land. The site which includes the former Grammar School building on Courtney Hill and the majority of the football pitch does not include the current St Colman’s Abbey Primary School, the former Monastery or extension – A large area of land above the Monastery that once included a number of mobile classrooms and the historic Mabel’s Folly. Among the groupings understood to have bid on the site are Newry and Mourne District Council who are keen to develop a city park. In March of this year the Christian Brothers gifted an adjoining area of land known as Abbey Park to the Council. Funding has already been secured for the transformation of the upper end of the site into a new build primary school housing students from the existing St Colman’s Abbey Primary and St Clare’s Primary which currently bookend the bottom portion of the site. Suggestions for the future usage of existing buildings include a multi-million pound health village, a fold for the elderly and a potential headquarters for the new Newry, Mourne and Down District super council.
Newry Reporter
16th October 2013
“