£1.5m boost to help work of Mournes body

£1.5m boost to help work of Mournes body

25 July 2012 - by David Telford

THE Mourne Heritage Trust has secured over a £1m conservation boost from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The cash is being made available via the Fund’s Landscape Partnership Programme which helps protect and manage some of the UK’s most outstanding and treasured landscapes.

The landscape partnership area in the Mournes is centred around the upland core of the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with the compact range of granite peaks which rise abruptly from the Irish Sea the focus of the project.

The quality and importance of this landscape has been recognised with the Mournes being identified among three landscapes shortlisted as potential candidates to be among Northern Ireland’s first ever national parks.

Thirty individual projects make up the Landscape Conservation Action Plan in the Mournes which covers an area of 223km.

There are 10 project themes including encouraging healthy heathland, saving Mourne juniper, caring for walls and monuments, making recreation sustainable, developing trails with tales, getting people around the Mournes, creating focal points, participative research and learning and sharing stories about the Mournes.

The vision is that by 2016, the Mournes will exhibit a mosaic of recovering heathland with unique Mourne juniper thriving once again and the restoration of monuments and iconic dry stone walls that criss-cross the area.

It is also hoped that a cohesive approach by farmers and large landowners will ensure the use of a range of techniques to clear scrub, keep invasive species at bay, while encouraging and maintaining native plants.

The Mourne Heritage Trust said local communities are also at the heart of many aspects of the scheme, explaining skills training and wide ranging participation from local communities will allow their knowledge to be shared in a variety of ways.

The Trust says a drive to reinvigorate traditional folklore, handicrafts and skills in communities will ensure the natural, cultural and Industrial heritage of the Mournes is preserved and shared with their visitors.

The Heritage Lottery Fund’s cash boost includes just over £60,000 toward the conservation, improvement and restoration works for the Ring of Gullion Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, widely regarded as the finest example of a ring dyke in Ireland and Britain.

Mourne Heritage Trust Chief Executive, Martin Carey, explained the funding will “celebrate and significantly enhance the conservation of the natural, built and cultural heritage.”

He added: “We look forward to engaging with the communities of Mourne throughout the implementation of the programme.”

Stormont Environment Minister, Alex Attwood, has welcomed the funding, describing it as “great news.” He said the cash boost is clear evidence of the growing recognition that investing in natural and built heritage can produce very significant community benefits, as well as a sound economic return.

Mr. Attwood added: “It is also a strong endorsement of the approach taken by the Mourne Heritage Trust and the staff in Ring of Gullion to work with landowners and local communities to identify practical measures to enhance the landscape and promote its enjoyment by the visiting public.”

Mr. Paul Mullan, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Northern Ireland, described the Mournes as “one of the most iconic landscapes of natural beauty in Northern Ireland” and said the landscape partnership scheme will ensure long-term management, promising long-term benefits for the local communities, visitors and the heritage of “this magnificent landscape.”