Pictures: Valerie O’Sullivan
THE striking carved deer sculpture painstakingly created from a rotting Spanish chestnut tree, has been officially launched in Killarney several months after it was created.
The fabulous artistic piece, depicting a native red deer, is now a very distinctive feature of the busy New Road-Port Road junction, close to the town’s schools and opposite the national park at Knockreer.
An expert report commissioned by Killarney Municipal District Council concluded that the landmark tree at the junction was riddled with Phytophthora ink disease and there was little option but to remove it.
The tree had been in decline for at least 10 years and although all major deadwood was removed, it continued to decline and the crown and the bark had rotted. A decision was taken to knock the tree but Killarney Municipal District Engineer, John Ahern, devised a plan to create a major piece of wood sculpture from what remained of the trunk.
Expert tree sculptor Will Fogarty of the Ballyhoura, Co Limerick based Fear na Coíllte Chainsaw Carvings was engaged for the project and the painstaking and meticulous carving which, showing a red deer leaping into the air, has been admired by tens of thousands of people.
The monument was formally unveiled this Wednesday by Noel Grimes of the Killarney Deer Society.
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