Annual Report and Accounts

Introduction to Mourne Heritage Trust

Mourne Heritage Trust was established in 1997 to meet an identified need for locally based, strategic management of the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Spanning 570 square kilometres in the south east of Northern Ireland, this diverse landscape includes the Mourne mountains, a beautiful coastline, the ancient uplands of Slieve Croob and the foothills and drumlin country in between.

Mission Statement

‘To sustain and enhance the environment, rural regeneration, cultural heritage and visitor opportunities of the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and contribute to the well-being of Mournes communities’

Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees represents a partnership of a broad range of stakeholders including local elected representatives along with environment, tourism, farming and community interests and gives a strategic lead to the management of the AONB.  Board composition in 2020/2021 was as follows:

Trustee	Main Sectoral Interest
Mr David Maginn(Chairman)	Tourism/Farming
Mr John Toner (Vice Chair)	Tourism
Ms Isabel Hood (Company Secretary)	Environment
Mr David Thompson (Treasurer)	Environment
Mr Robert Agnew - joined Jan 2021	Farming
Ms Didi Baxter - joined Jan 2021	Tourism
Mr Alastair Chestnutt	Tourism
Mr William Clarke	Local Authority Elected Representative
Mr Seamus Doyle	Farming
Mrs Laura Devlin	Local Authority Elected Representative
Mr Sean Fitzpatrick	Farming
Ms Maureen Killen	Community
Mr Glyn Hanna	Local Authority Elected Representative
Mr John Martin	Environment
Mr William John Martin	Community
Mr Brendan McDowell	Farming
Mr Vincent McAlinden - joined Jan 2021	Outdoor Recreation
Mrs Sally Montgomery - joined Jan 2021	Environment
Mr Desmond Patterson	Farming
Mr Geoff Simmons	Business
Mr Ian Watts	Angling

Annual General Meeting 2020

The Trust held its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 21st October 2020 by Zoom video conferencing, respecting Covid guidelines.

Chairman Mr David Maginn opened the meeting noting the significant upturn in access to the mountains, green lanes, forest trails of the Mourne AONB through the pandemic, pointing to the evident benefits for health and well-being and a heightened awareness of the importance of our natural world. He expressed his desire for the Trust to continue to reduce its carbon footprint and to expand its ‘carbon positive’ activities including tree planting, peatland erosion control and heathland restoration. 

Councillor Laura Devlin, Chair of Newry, Mourne & Down DC, pointed to the long track record of achievement of MHT and emphasised that the need for locally based management of the Mourne AONB was never greater. Laura acknowledged the input of the Trust to the Council led multi-agency response to visitor pressures, emphasising the need to ensure people appreciate our wonderful landscape in ways that are both sustainable and respectful of local people and communities. She thanked MHT staff, volunteers and her fellow MHT Board members for their dedication.  

The Trust’s accounts for 2019/20 were presented by Mrs Una Cunningham of Purdy Quinn Ltd, Kilkeel, demonstrating that the charity had continued to bring in substantial funding from a variety of sources in both unrestricted (core) and restricted (project) categories with a total income of £831,306 and expenditure of £803,876. She concluded by congratulating the Trust on another successful year of operations.  

There followed a slide show of key outcomes delivered across environmental enhancement, visitor management and sustainable tourism activities along with efforts to connect local people with their landscape.  CEO of the Trust, Martin Carey, acknowledging the contributions over many years of two long standing members of staff, Mandy McAvoy and John McEvoy, who had moved on in the course of the year and also of retiring Board members Mr Ryan Harty and Dr Arthur Mitchell.

Ryan, he explained, devoted considerable time to assisting the Trust with communications activity.  Martin went on to acknowledge Arthur as one of the prime movers in the establishment of the Trust, becoming its first Chair and subsequently holding the position of Vice-Chair. All this was in addition to his professional life as a local GP and a wide range of community work and was rewarded with his receipt in 2012 of the Europarc Federation’s Alfred Toepfer Medal recognising his outstanding contribution to nature conservation.

Staff Changes

Mr Matthew Bushby stepped back form his role as full-time Countryside Services Manager, continuing to provide input on key work areas in a part time capacity.

Mr Niall Kelly and Mr Philip Savage joined Mr Seamus Murphy as Senior Countryside Officers.

Mr Dean Fitzpatrick took up the role of Depot Steward as an adjunct to his role as Countryside Officer.

Mourne AONB Management Plan

A framework for ‘Caring for Mourne’ is provided by the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Management Plan. This sets a long term vision for protecting and enhancing special features of the landscape and related heritage and is accompanied by an Action Plan specifying approaches for the period 2017 to 2022.

The management plan is structured around four interconnecting themes:
- Mountain, Countryside and Coast
- Historic Environment
- Sustainable Communities
- Enjoying, Appreciating and Understanding the Mourne AONB
 
The plan seeks not just to set an agenda for the actions of Mourne Heritage Trust but also to recognise the significant efforts of partners. As it is a non-statutory document, successful implementation relies on the commitment of various agencies and stakeholders to pursue these principles in line with their remits, priorities and resources.

Other plans and policy forums impact on the AONB, and MHT continues to contribute to these in line with the strategic direction set by the AONB plan. These include the local authority led Community Planning process in which MHT chair the Access to natural and built heritage working group.

Several major initiatives are currently helping advance AONB management goals. We participate in stakeholder or steering groups for the Mourne Gateway Project, Mourne, Gullion, Strangford & Lecale Geopark, Castlewellan Park Historic Demesne, the South East Area Fisheries Local Action Group and the Mourne Visitor Management Multi-Agency Group.

Collaboration with other environmental NGOs is another key mechanism for fulfilling AONB management goals and includes with RSPB in relation to red kites, Ulster Wildlife Trust in respect of red squirrel conservation, Woodland Trust on establishing native woodland and National Trust on erosion control and wildfire prevention. NI Water, as the largest landowner in the area, is a key partner in erosion control and heathland restoration while Newry, Mourne and Down DC, Forest Service and Sport Northern Ireland, among others, help deliver on access and outdoor recreation related

Our participation in various best practice networks - including NI Environment Link (NIEL), the Europarc Federation, the European Northern Periphery Area ASCENT group and the NI Historic Environment Stakeholders Group - allows us to access expert and peer knowledge to shape our pursuit of management plan objectives. Stakeholder engagement is delivered primarily through mechanisms including the Mourne Outdoor Recreation Forum (MORF) and Mourne Wildfire Group in conjunction with NI Fire & Rescue Service, as well as through topic focussed workshops and meetings.

In our role of ‘champion for Mourne’ in advancing priorities of the management plan we contributed this year to the following specific policy or best practice development exercises:

• Representation of protected landscape areas in meetings between environmental NGO leaders and DEARA/NIEA senior officers.
• eNGO sector input to Environment and Economy Ministers advocating investment in a ‘Green Recovery’ programme including outdoor access infrastructure.
• NI Environment Link meeting with Finance Minister on need for investment in outdoor access and related visitor infrastructure.
• National Lottery Heritage Fund review of post Covid priorities for investment in heritage infrastructure and interpretation.
• National Outdoor Recreation Forum (NORF) letter to Minister Poots (Environment) on needs for improvement in outdoor access infrastructure and services and attendance at meeting with him and Minister Hargey (Communities).
• National Outdoor Recreation Forum Input to Forest Service on arrangements for large scale outdoor events in Forest Parks.
• NIEA led recreation re-opening site managers group
• National Outdoor Recreation Forum proposals on measures for easing the lockdown at outdoor sites, including letters to Ministers.
• Partnership agreement with the Heritage Hub at Queen’s University, Northern Ireland Museums Council (NIMC) and the Centre for Data Digitisation & Analysis (CDDA) to support a new free-to-access online platform, www.HeritageNI.org
• NI Sport and Physical Activity Strategy 2020 to 2030, Sportni Corporate Plan and consultation on future role of Tollymore National Outdoor Centre respectively
• Outdoor Recreation Northern Ireland online survey on ‘Local trails and greenspace during COVID-19 lockdown
• Review of south-east (Newry, Mourne & Down DC area) AONB management.
• Mountaineering Ireland ‘Helping the Hills’ seminar focussing on best practice path management in upland honeypot sites.
• Site visits to Cuilcagh, Fermanagh engaging with land mangers on erosion control, new path development, wildfire protection and heathland restoration.
• Rostrevor Wood Conservation Management Plan.
• Climate Change Bill and Environmental Governance consultations respectively.
• DAERA Consultation of Key Stakeholders on provision of access for outdoor recreation in Northern Ireland and contribution to NI Outdoor Recreation Forum workshop with DAERA policy leads.

In the remainder of this annual report we focus on the subset of management plan activities led by and/or significantly involving Mourne Heritage Trust.

Natural Environment Enhancement and Protection

Protecting and enhancing priority habitats and species and key landscape features is the cornerstone of the Trust’s work, both at landscape level and in relation to individual flora and fauna respectively. Highlights are set out below.

Litter and Dumping

With pandemic lockdowns stimulating a significant increase in people accessing the outdoors across the AONB and closing various facilities, litter, dumping and ‘party camping’ became more significant impacts on the environment. Our countryside team members re-doubled their efforts to address this very prominent blight on our landscape and key habitats. Various sites and key access corridors were visited at least weekly including the following: Moneyscalp; Trassey; Ott; Happy Valley; Dree Hill; Windy Gap; Carricklittle; Banns Road; Kilbroney mountain car park; Yellow Water; Bunkers Hill, Castlewellan Lake; Slievenaslat; Leitrim Lodge; Sandbank Road/ Hen Mountain; Kilfeaghan; Spelga; Deers Meadow; Slievenaman; Blue Quarry, Shimna Bridge; Slievenaslat/ Playrock; Dolly’s Brae; Binder’s Cove; Legananny Dolmen; Lighthouse Road; Quarter Road; Banns Road; Crocknafeola; Pigeon Rock.

In order to address a continued prevalence of litter and dumping associated primarily with wild ‘party’ camping we also undertook a regular ‘hotspot’ patrol at the following twenty locations: Sandy Brae; Fofanny; Carricklittle quarry track; Annalong Wood and Annalong River; Hamiltons Lane, Dunnywater; Long Seefin; Loughshannagh; Cnocnafeola Wood; Happpy Valley corridor; Trassey sheepfold, Clonachullion forest; Shepherds cottage; Slievenabrock; Spinkwee River; Tullybrannigan lane; Donard forest and Glen River; Bloody Bridge pipeline; Batts Wood. Most were visited either weekly or fortnightly depending on observations of frequency and extent of issues or monthly in a small minority of cases.

We also initiated a volunteer litter initiative, on which more detail is provided in the section on Engaging People with their Landscape.

Wildfire Control

It was again evident 2020/21 that fire remains a major threat to our wild lands. The spring and early summer of 2020 saw substantial landscape fires at Castlewellan Forest – a key recreational and timber resource – and at Happy Valley and Banns Road/ Lough Shannagh, both in the Eastern Mournes Special Area of Conservation. The latter in particular impacted a significant area of designated heathland and peatland. Our team attended each of these major incidents in support of NI Fire & Rescue Service, providing specialist equipment and knowledge of the terrain among other functions. We also undertook a detailed post-burn vegetation survey of the Lough Shannagh site and a post fire inspection at Happy Valley.

In a preventative capacity we undertook an evening wildfire patrol in times of high risk, in line with warnings issued by the Natural Hazards Partnership, and also carried out a number of awareness raising actions, mainly through local press and social media. Working with partners we installed weather and condition monitoring equipment at the Bog of Donard and Silent Valley which will add to our base of knowledge on fire conditions. We convened the Mourne Wildfire Group to agree a specification for a review of Mourne wildfire prevention project, which was subsequently commissioned on the group’s behalf by NI Water.

We continued to share knowledge with the Cuilcagh (Fermanagh) habitat fire including in its stakeholder meetings and through site visits. We provided input to research being undertaken by the Game and Wildfire Conservation Trust and Birmingham University respectively as well as providing various pieces of information to NI Environment Agency to inform the NI Wildfire Strategy construction.

Heathland Restoration

The upland heath habitat in the high Mournes is the feature for which it derives its status as a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Over the years it had been degraded by a range of natural and man-made forces including grazing, fire, footfall and extreme weather.

In order to address this threat, alongside site works at our restoration sites in the Slieve Binnian / Annalong Valley area, we continued to build our knowledge base. This included liaison with Queens University Belfast on a methodology for monitoring of gas emission from heathland sites and with that institution and Aberdeen University on potential further research. In both cases progress has not been as significant as planned due to Covid restrictions on students travelling to sites, so we engaged remotely. We also took the opportunity to conduct Initial analysis of the implications of a Phase II National Vegetation Classification survey for the Slieve Beg/ Slieve Commedagh heathland site and carried out monitoring of heathland condition between Mourne Wall at Ott track and Doan.

As with fire control we sought opportunities to share knowledge, which included input to Newry, Mourne and Down DC on development of heathland restoration approaches for the Slieve Gullion SAC and with the ‘ALICE’ Interreg funded catchment management project focussed on Carlingford Lough.

Mourne Juniper

In pursuit of protecting and enhancing the population of genetically distinct Mourne – a key and threatened part of the heathland mosaic - cuttings taken last year were sorted and re-potted achieving a 70% survival rate. A further 191 Juniper cuttings were processed and potted and 410 seeds collected, processed and placed into cold stratification for planting out in the summer. We were delighted to be able to provide juniper to a new native woodland scheme extending to 11.47ha, in partnership with Scottish Woodlands Ltd).

Red Squirrels

Monitoring work to check for grey squirrel and monitor the reds’ health, numbers and movements continued across sites in Silent Valley, Mourne Park, Kilkeel River corridor, the Annalong River corridor and Dunnywater. This was complemented by installation of new Trail Cams and further recruitment of volunteers for maintenance of feeders. A further red squirrel release at Dunnywater was undertaken in partnership with NI Water, Belfast Zoo and NIEA. We liaised with Mourne Grange (Kilkeel) about grey control and installed red squirrel feeders on private land in nearby Ballyardle.

Native Woodland

As preparations were finalised for recruitment, with Woodland Trust, of a full-time native woodlands officer, we continued to expand the reach and impact of our Trees for Mourne planting programme.
With volunteer group activity curtailed by the pandemic, we devoted additional staff time to maintenance of Silent Valley and Dunnywater nurseries.  During the lockdown period we also built 215 mesh cattle / horse guards and created a storage area for a stock of Hibernian Pine which were procured.

When plating season arrived we undertook 300 metres of boundary tree planting with local landowners and prepared four afforestation applications for sites totalling 31ha of new woodland at sites in Slievenalargy, Slieve Croob, Rathfriland and Ballinran.  Further partnership work with Woodland Trust on larger sites included development of schemes for Aughrim Hill and Fofanny.
We also undertook enrichment planting on existing Trees for Mourne sites.

We were delighted to be able to provide mature native oak to Newry, Mourne and Down DC for planting at various sites across the district and to reach agreement with the same authority to plant saplings in Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor grown from seed collected from mature trees that grew outside the window of C.S. Lewis’ study in Oxford and that he will have looked at while writing the Chronicles of Narnia.

... And Lots More

Other highlights of our natural heritage related work in the year included the following:

• Commissioning and substantial completion of habitat mapping in the Eastern Mournes Special Area of Conservation.
• Liaison with NI Environment Agency on Special Area of Conservation Management Plan for the Eastern Mournes, including approach to habitat mapping.
• Liaison with NI Water with respect to a comprehensive and coherent approach to catchment habitat management in the Mournes culminating in commissioning of planning work.
• Input to RSPB led Red Kites project as Steering Group member.
• Maintenance of Dunnywater apiary.
• Wildflower sympathetic maintenance regime implemented at various points on green lane network, and aftercare of planted area at Bath Lane Newcastle.
• Landscape change monitoring through fixed point photography regime and submission to NIEA.
• Clearance of invasive species including Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam at Clonallen, Warrenpoint and Glasdrumman and rhododendron at Silent Valley.
• Support to Amphibian & Reptile Group UK, Council and the Herpetological Society of Ireland on Mournes phase of Dragons in the Hills project including liaison with local schools.
• Assistance to King’s College London and Queens University Belfast study of marine conservation in the Irish Sea with reference to Carlingford Lough, including distribution and promotion of online survey.

Visitor Management and Services

The Mourne AONB is Northern Ireland’s foremost area for outdoor recreation, particularly for mountain and hill walking but also offering a range of other land and water-based activities across green lanes, forests, parklands, rivers lakes and coast. As we will demonstrate, many of these activities have seen a significant spike in popularity since the onset of the Covid pandemic. Our role in helping to provide appropriate access to this special landscape whilst monitoring and mitigating the potentially adverse impacts has never been more called upon.

Visitor Monitoring – Walking

The table below sets out visitor counts from our electronic visitor counters at four main upland access points, along with the difference from the previous year. 

	Carricklittle/ Slieve Binnian	Glen River/ Slieve Donard	Ott	Trassey Track
2020	106,821	135,258	95,616	99,666
Increase from 2019	26,244	27,709	60,619	50,306
% change 2019 to 2020	32.6%	25.8%	173.2%	98.12%

 

Summary: 

The total increase in the calendar year across the above sites was 67%, which included periods of lockdown in which there was limited access. Other sites away from the mountains were also very busy. This included the network of local green lanes and forest trails.  Counts at Castlewellan Forest Lake Walk reached almost 200,000, up 44% from 2019. The Granite Trail near Newcastle had almost 16000 visitors, a 36% increase.        
Some highlights from the detail of the counts are set out below and these reinforce the dramatic scale of the increases.

• On the weekend of 30/31 May 2020, the first weekend after the official re-opening of outdoor sites, main access corridors were very busy.
• Carricklittle (Binnian) saw 2721 visitors, compared to 1011 on the May bank holiday weekend of 2019.
• Glen River/Slieve Donard saw 4296 on that same weekend in 2020 compared to 1490 on the bank holiday weekend in 2019.
• Increases were sustained through the summer
• Glen River recorded a peak monthly count of 21,300 in July 2020. The figure for July 2019 was 15,729
• Carrick Little saw 18,350 in that month against 11,555 in the same month the previous year
• Increases across sites were particularly pronounced in October, November, December indicating much less seasonality.
• Sites away from the main honeypot of Donard saw biggest proportionate increases.
• Ott track 13,944 in August up hugely from 3,594 in August 2019; a more than threefold increase. The whole year increase for the site was almost threefold.
• Trassey Track saw an increase from 6,143 to 13,944 in the August of 2019 and 2020 respectively, more than doubling. The year total was almost double

Visitor Monitoring - Mountain Biking

Managing the mountain bike trail centres in Castlewellan and Rostrevor Forests is a key element of our work, again guided by monitoring of numbers and observation of patterns of use on the ground.

Maintaining the mountain bike trails in Castlewellan and Rostrevor Forests is a key element of our work, again guided by monitoring of numbers and observation of patterns of use on the ground. For much of 2020 Council, the licence holder for the trails, kept the elite level downhill trails closed, recognising the need to minimise any risk of call on the emergency and/or hospital services.

The cross-country trails, as evidenced in the table below, were a popular distraction for people - albeit use did not increase in the proportions seen on key walking routes. The jumps track in Castlewellan saw the biggest increase (42%). This facility is typically used by a younger and/or family cohort and no doubt helped compensate for the cessation of other sporting activities and school closures. The 31% increase in use of the mountain bike trails at the same venue is also significant, particularly when compared to the more modest increase of 14% at Rostrevor. Again this likely reflects the more ‘family’/ all ability nature of the Castlewellan trails.

	2020	2019	2018
Castlewellan MTB Trails	37,861	28,941	33,667
Castlewellan Jump Tracks	108,024	75,885	65,386
Home Run, Rostrevor	9,357	8,230	9,361

Managing Impacts and Maintaining a Quality Experience

The unprecedented numbers of visitors put pressure on visitor infrastructure and services and our team responded by redoubling their efforts to manage pressures including litter (outlined in the previous section of this report), congestion at key honeypot sites, disturbance to livestock and wildlife and erosion of paths. The extent and breadth of our visitor management activity and experience enhancement is set out below:

• Weekly inspection and maintenance at 21 amenity sites throughout the Mourne AONB.
• Maintenance of 52 Public Rights of Way, Green Lanes and Paths, 7 Way-Marked Cycle Routes, 70+ stiles and over 100 interpretative panels.
• Inspection and maintenance of long-distance walking trails including the Mourne Way & Newcastle Way along with local trails such as the Granite Trail and Silent Valley Nature Trail along with 19 other accredited Quality Walks.
• Day to day trail inspection, maintenance and user engagement at Mourne Mountain Bike Trails (Castlewellan and Rostrevor) and forest walking trails (Castlewellan) addressing issues including vegetation control, surface repair, dealing with wind-blown trees, post event remediation works.
• Various covid-19 related measures at outdoor access points in line with Executive regulations including ‘Stay at Home’ and social distancing signage at relevant locations.
• Liaison with landowners and residents with respect to congestion and installation of site-specific signage where appropriate.
• Liaison with farmers on dog impacts on livestock.  
• Ranger patrols at anti-social behaviour hotpsots.
• Contribution to TNI sustainable/ regenerative tourism working group and emerging strategy proposals.

• Upland erosion control/ path works at the following upland locations:
• Donard Forest (Glen River Trail) branch and aggregate path definition and reinforcement
• Slieve Donard - Glen River trail where it emerges from Donard Forest.
• Slieve Donard - Bloody Bridge track and Glen River, upper section to saddle – both in conjunction with National Trust.
• Slieve Gullion, in conjunction with Newry, Mourne & Down DC.
• Slieve Binnian - Carrick little to the north Tor, Ben Crom link path and Binnian-Lamagan, ‘the Pancakes’ approach to North tor and the North tor to middle castles routes
• Forest Trail works including the following:
• Major improvements to the iconic ‘Kodak Corner’ section of Rostrevor Mountain bike trails to address both erosion and conflicts between walking and mountain biking use.
• Programme of drainage improvements across Castlewellan mountain bike trails.
• Scoping and specification of repair and upgrade of lakeside trail around Castlewellan Lake including revetment work to stabilise the path.
• Support and guidance on technical issues to Council on the new Fallows walking trail in Rostrevor.
• Input to Council review of mountain biking in Mourne forests and to tender for major upgrade of downhill mountain bike trails.

• Installation of an enhanced visitor counting system with a greater number of collection points and remote access to data through a bespoke dashboard.
• Design of survey of high Mournes visitors to build demographic profile, in partnership with SportNI.
• Expert input to Council multi-agency group on visitor management issues, including monitoring information on nature and extent of visitor impacts and shaping of the action plan.
• Support to Council on deployment of Tourism Enforcement Officers around the high Mournes and key outlying sites for high season.
• Input to various initiatives to raise awareness of appropriate and inappropriate visitor behaviour including Outdoor Recreation NI working group on ‘The Right side of Outside’ campaign and to NIEA for a MyNI campaign.
• Liaison with PSNI and NI Environment Agency on scrambler, 4 x 4 and quad bike misuse of key visitor access areas.

Connecting People and Heritage

Alongside the practical conservation and visitor management works set out in previous sections, we employ a range of approaches to connect people with the AONB landscape and raise awareness of its special natural, built and cultural features. These span work to enhance visitor experiences, to engage local communities and to facilitate volunteering.  In the past year many of our usual approaches were impacted by Covid relate restrictions and we adapted to make even greater use of electronic media and ‘remote’ engagement techniques, notably though our already popular social media channels.

Magical Mournes and Narnia

The centrepiece of our tourism and community engagement works was our National Lottery Heritage Fund supported project to tell the story of C.S. Lewis creation of the Chronicles of Narnia which was inspired by the Mourne landscape. This project progressed significantly with building work completed on an Audio-Visual Room in Kilbroney Park Rostrevor, including adaptations to manage the flow of visitors as well as to provide access for people with disabilities. We grateful to Rostrevor Men’s Shed who provided help with the external works to enhance the sense of arrival. Working with a volunteer creative designer, a virtual Narnia experience was evolved, incorporating an antique wardrobe as the entrance to the magical word, as in the books. An animated short film which will be the centrepiece of the experience was largely completed. These developments then paved the way for the piloting of the visitor offering, incorporating animation by actors dressed as characters from the chronicles, in summer 2021.

Virtual Mourne

As mentioned, we put a significant focus on giving people opportunities to engage digitally with the special qualities of our wonderful area, particularly through the months of lockdown. Our ‘Heritage at Home’ series on social media provided videos, oral histories and pictures of our natural, built and cultural heritage with Mourne related worksheets for children and online virtual jigsaws for all ages proving popular. This and other content saw our Twitter and Facebook reach grow to a total of almost 16,000 followers and our newly established Instagram profile quickly attracted over 1000 followers.

We sought opportunities to share Mourne heritage with even wider audiences which included participation in an online Festival of Archaeology organised by Queens University and NI Museum’s Council and provision of content on Mourne stone walls for Galway’s Feile na gCloch (Festival of Stone) online event. We also provided Tourism NI with 360-degree panoramic films of the Mournes for use during lockdown to maintain interest with potential future Republic of Ireland visitors.

In conjunction with Council, our AONB landscape photography competition again produced a wonderful calendar and with a local community group we produced an online Nature Experiences calendar, giving people suggestions on different ways to engage with nature through each of the months of the year.

While tourism business was at times significantly disrupted, we focussed on engaging tourism enterprises in our online awareness raising and raising awareness of the special aspects of the AONB to add depth and authenticity to the future visitor experience. A Mourne Top 10 outdoor heritage experiences digital brochure provided popular with enterprises and their domestic tourism visitors.  We also continued to assist enterprises with experience development including with funding applications and social media/ website development.

Other Engagement and Promotion

We employed a varied range of other approaches and mechanisms to promote public awareness of the special qualities of the Mourne AONB and related heritage. Highlights included the following:

• AONB Related Articles in local and regional press and input to various broadcast media productions including the following:
• BBC Newsline feature on issues associated with wild camping in the Mournes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-53667619/fly-campers-put-ni-beauty- spots-at-risk
• BBC ‘NI Home Ground’ feature on Castlewellan Mountain Bike Trails, including demonstrating practical trail maintenance.
• New Decade TV 3-part landscape and geology series called ‘The Island’ to be shown on both RTÉ and BBC NI.
• Dragonfly TV on access for drone filming of Mourne landscape for a documentary for BBC1 UK.
• BBC1 UK Countryfile filming for Children in Need special in the Annalong Valley.
• RTE ‘Tracks and Trails’ filming at Silent Valley and high Mournes.
• 'The Norseman' feature film.

 

• Mourne Artisan Markets in Newcastle, with adjustments to control numbers and maintain social distancing these attracted significant numbers of visitors in a covid safe environment.
• Mourne Gullion Strangford Geopark initiative support to Council including input to development plan, nomination of members to Stakeholder Group and provision of content and images for new interpretive panels at key sites
• Agreement with NI Water for funding of a suite of new interpretive panels on key Mourne access routes and initial location proposals.
• Information to Mourne Gateway Project under Belfast City Deal, led by Council and Tourism NI, informing and Outline Business Case to Executive Office
• Steering group member of Castlewellan Heritage Demesne Working Group achieving a substantial award from National Lottery Heritage Fund. MHT input included to interpretation and engagement plan and liaison with supporting eNGOs.
• Provision of additional period artefacts to the relocated and restored Watertown House in Silent Valley.
• Support to NI Water proposal development for potential Silent Valley education and visitor facility enhancements.
• Dry Stone Wall repair at Hannas Close traditional clachan and self-catering venue.

Input to Mourne Tourism Cluster and the local authority led Atlantic Culturescapes Project through online meetings and activities.

VOLUNTEERING

Volunteer engagement was among the aspects of our work most significantly impacted by Covid restrictions.  Nonetheless we still received valuable input at times from both existing and new volunteers.  

Our path team activity continued when the context allowed on the Ben Crom/ Lamagan col trail, with good progress made over the summer months after the first lockdown was lifted and up to the second lockdown in October.  While we were unable to run events in Volunteer Week (1st to 7th June) we took the opportunity to profile and promote the very important contribution of the Mourne Volunteer Path Team through various online activities that were available at that time.

Otherwise our volunteer activity focused primarily around facilitating the appetite among people in the community and visitors to help with litter control, an important activity that people could do relatively independently in their own time. This included support to group litter lifts at key sites as well as liaison with individual and small groups – including some identified through social media. Over 30 people volunteered to join our contact list to continue and/or increase their activity and receive direction on where to target as well as equipment – litter pickers, bags, gloves etc. To facilitate more ‘casual’ volunteering we installed two litter picking stations at Carrick Cottage Café and Meelmore Lodge, in the Annalong Valley and Trassey access corridors respectively. These contained litter pickers, bags and hand sanitiser and carried Leave No Trace information messages.

Volunteers also assisted with tasks as diverse as collecting readings from the rain gauge on Slieve Bearnagh to Juniper propagation to, as touched on above, the development of the Narnia experience. A huge thanks to all.