Dromoland Castle
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Dromoland Castle Resort is one of Ireland’s most renowned castle estates, located in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland. The 16th-century castle is set within extensive parkland and woodland, with the resort’s official site describing it as surrounded by over 500 acres of unspoiled grounds. Steeped in history and linked to the O’Brien lineage, Dromoland Castle combines heritage architecture, landscaped estate grounds and five-star hospitality.
AltiGeo was appointed to carry out a large-scale UAV survey of the entire Dromoland Castle estate. The client required an online viewable 3D model of the estate, along with a photogrammetric pointcloud that could be used as a base within Autodesk Revit to support a feasibility study.
The overall estate area surveyed was approximately 242 hectares, requiring a carefully planned aerial survey strategy to capture both the wider estate context and the detailed architectural areas around the castle and associated structures.
Survey Methodology
Due to the scale of the estate, AltiGeo divided the site into five separate survey regions, with each region treated as an individual survey zone. Each zone was provided with its own set of ground control points to support accurate processing, georeferencing and quality control across the full estate.
Two UAV flight strategies were used. The first flight plan was carried out at approximately 110m AGL to capture the full estate and produce a lower-resolution photogrammetric model suitable for viewing the overall site context. A second flight plan was carried out at approximately 75m AGL to produce higher-resolution models of key zones, particularly around built structures and areas close to the castle.
To improve the level of detail around the main castle building, additional close-range imagery was captured at approximately 5m from the face of the castle. This allowed AltiGeo to record architectural details, façade features and complex building elements at a much higher resolution than would be possible from standard nadir flights alone.
A total of 9,990 images with metadata were captured to produce the overall low-resolution photogrammetric model of the estate. The high-resolution model was then processed separately by zone, with each zone containing approximately 3,000 images with metadata, producing detailed photogrammetric models for the selected high-priority areas.
Deliverables
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Online viewable 3D model of the overall estate
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Low-resolution photogrammetric model of the full 242-hectare estate
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High-resolution photogrammetric models of key zones
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Georeferenced photogrammetric pointcloud
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Revit-usable pointcloud base for feasibility study
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Detailed close-range castle façade imagery
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Zone-based UAV survey data structured for efficient design team use