NARNIA, the mythical world created by CS Lewis, is to be re-created in the Irish Midlands, bringing a white Christmas to a corner of Co Westmeath.

Belvedere House and park, an 18th-century hunting and fishing lodge near Mullingar, has been given permission by the Lewis estate and Harper Collins publishers to host a one-off Narnia event coinciding with the release of Disney’s film version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

“It’s the book story that we’re sticking to,” said Bartle D’Arcy, Belvedere’s manager. “But we have permission to use images from the film, which also came through the estate.”

Lewis’s estate was impressed with the way Belvedere’s native features lend themselves to the fictional landscape. Uncannily, the grounds are dotted with Victorian lampstands, similar to the one Lucy, the book’s heroine, sees when she first enters Narnia through the wardrobe. There are also lion motifs carved on some of the stone structures.

Built in 1740 by Robert Rochfort, the first Earl of Belvedere, the park also has several follies, including Ireland’s largest, the Jealous Wall. Bartle has created a map of the house and its park, on which he has superimposed the topography of Narnia.

“We’re using the Melancholic follies,” he said. “The Gothic Octagonal Gazebo is now Cair Paravel [home to Aslan] and the Gothic Arch is the White Witch’s Castle. We also have Victorian lampstands throughout the estate.”

Disney’s film, to be released on December 9, has set off “Narniamania”, prompting a 40-fold increase in sales of Lewis’s books. As the only site in the world to secure permission to present itself as Narnia, Belvedere’s coup can be partly attributed to D’Arcy’s previous success in promoting books at the Belvedere bookshop, notably the last Harry Potter novel.

When D’Arcy approached HarperCollins about using Narnia, it sought permission from the CS Lewis Company, which manages the writer’s estate. “Bartle D’Arcy brought the idea to us,” said Geraldine Shroud, publicity director of HarperCollins. “Based on his enthusiasm, vision and what he achieved in launching the latest Harry Potter [with Bloomsbury] in Ireland, we had no hesitation in giving him the go-ahead. As expected, he has done an outstanding job in temporarily transforming the estate into the land of Narnia, using existing features and adding some new ones – including the all-important wardrobe doors.”

Bartle is hoping that if further books in the Narnia series are made into films, the event could become an annual affair.

“If it works we’ll do it every winter, he said. “Though of course there are permanent features in the parkland — we may retain them to encourage children to explore the park.

“We have a half-tonne Aslan. He was carved by a local garden furniture company. The Stone Table (a key element in the book’s narrative) was carved at a local quarry in Tullaghmore. We also have stone eagles and centaurs — there were about 40 different kinds of creatures in CS Lewis’s book.”

Investing €25,000 in the transformation, Westmeath County Council, which owns Belvedere, hopes that the Narnia association will bring an extra 20,000 visitors to the park this Christmas. From November 27 until the end of January, children will be able to enter Narnia through a wardrobe installed in the courtyard.

“I found the wardrobe in an auction room in Omagh,” said D’Arcy. “In the book, the wardrobe was made from a Narnian apple tree. This wardrobe has carvings of an apple tree on the front, it’s perfect.”

Lewis’s Irish roots was also a factor in Belvedere’s favour. Born and raised in Belfast, Lewis was thought to have been inspired by the Mourne mountains in Co Down to create the geography and scenery of Narnia. “Given that Ireland is CS Lewis’s homeland, it’s wonderful to have Narnia come to Belvedere to coincide with the release of the movie,” said Shroud. “Belvedere is a wonderful Georgian estate which is well worth a visit all year round.”

Lewis’s stepsons, Douglas and David Gresham, are based in Ireland, but both sold their rights to the Lewis estate in the 1970s and missed out on the multi-million-euro deal with Disney. Douglas Gresham, 60, is billed as co-producer of the new movie, but he is a salaried employee of the estate.

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