Tenth Glen Heritage Farms have just had their first year of operations since setting up as a constituted entity. It was a rewarding, engaging, year with lots of highlights and inspiring connections. It was also a very busy year with lots of lessons for us. What set us up to thrive was our new committee making time last autumn to take the idea behind the project, strip it down, review and re-build it into a viable, inspiring and engaging movement with each person putting their stamp on it. Thanks to Johnny Hanson from the Cultivating Community Farms project for guiding us through that process. What we want to create is a network of reimagined heritage properties supporting resilient lives and land in Glenravel. We intend to restore our built heritage and inspire our communities of place and interest to celebrate the old ways and in that, reimagine and develop sustainable futures.
We value collaboration and connection within and beyond our community and our objective in this first year was simply to open the door to that, make ourselves known, demonstrate what those fancy flowing vision and mission statements actually mean and start to grow a community around this idea. The following is a summary of how we did that through the year.
The Glenravel International Furnace Festival was the big showpiece of the year for us, a very proud achievement for our small new group. Starting over 12 months previously as a bit of joking with the Furnace Festivals of Ireland team, when we hosted them visiting the local mines and collecting samples. It became a viable idea when they successfully smelted some of our ore at their own festival in August 2023. From there began nine months of planning – information evenings, pre-events, craft workshops, a schools activity program, mining heritage events and of course we couldn’t not mark the 200th anniversary of the village where our mining heritage all began. The main event saw over 1000 people from across the country coming together to witness 40 smelters, smiths and apprentices from around the world smelt iron from Glenravel iron ore, in Glenravel for the first time in over 100 years – bringing the heritage of our area back to life – that is what we are about. (Read more about the Glenravel International Furnace Festival here). Highlights for our team: a fledgling group of local NI apprentice iron ore smelters to continue the skill; the first lump of iron produced from Glenravel ore in over a century from ore collected by local school children and our first TV appearance (ITV ‘History in the Making’).
Our Traditional Skills Festival followed closely after, the second year for this event. We had workshops running throughout the weekend with crafters and traditional skills practitioners both local and from further afield creating a craft trail across the wetlands and meadows of our pilot farm. We were very grateful to the Ulster Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, Wild Walk Bushcraft, Talu, Grasta and our newly formed Ulster Iron Smelters, all travelling from outside the area, and all whose generosity of time and knowledge really supported the spirit of this event.
Our aim for this festival is to celebrate traditional skills, to be an event to inspire the curious, induct the newcomer, light a fire under the amateur, provide a stage for the hobbyist, an audience for the professional and eager apprentices for the masters of the crafts.
It was very rewarding for us to see so many more locals getting involved this year with the Glenravel Art Club, the local crotchet group, the Glenravel Historical Society and a number of local crafts people displaying and demonstrating. Some of these local groups gained new recruits and for some of our local crafts people it was an opportunity for their first time out in public or a chance to get back out for the first time since covid. Those are all highlights for us but we particularly like the feedback we have been receiving about the simple relaxed, down-to-earth, positive connections atmosphere of the event, something which we will strive to achieve in all our events and activities.
For 2025 we are combining the Furnace Festival and the Traditional Skills Festival, they are a natural fit. We are very motivated by how these events have evolved and excited about the opportunities in store as this festival continues to take shape. We remain determined for it to be an event primarily for our communities of place and interest, a celebration of our local heritage and traditional skills and a really relaxed, enjoyable weekend for all involved. Put Saturday the 31st May and Sunday the 1st of June 2025 in your diary’s now for next year.
We closed out the summer supporting the annual Glenravel Country Fair, celebrating its 25th year. This has been a very inspiring event for us, a true example of rural community at its best. It receives no funding or outside support, it is not tied up in buracracy, red tape and deliverables, there is no big marketing campaign, it just is. A few committed individuals put out the call, local community groups, businesses and individuals step up, the community comes out, everyone enjoys it and they usually even manage to make a few pound for some good causes. That is community sustainability and something we aspire to with Tenth Glen Heritage Farms
As I mentioned collaboration and connections are very important to us. The support of organisations like the Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council and the Glenravel Historical Society, have been critical to the success of our events this year and we are very happy when we can return that support to our network
In September we went a bit batty, hosting Bats in the Byre with the Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust and the Northern Ireland Bat Group. It was very interesting to learn about the diversity of bat habitats that thrive alongside environmentally friendly and ethical farming practices and a lot of fun getting out in the moonlight with the bat detectors
Also in September we delivered ‘The Little Blue Flower’ the opening event for the Building Shared Creative Communities Project – Licked off the Stones between Mid and East Antrim Borough and Waterford County Councils. Welcoming visitors from Waterford and across the borough, supported by Glenravel Historical Society we presented all the ways in which Glenravel is preserving and sharing its rich heritage, between the work of the society, the vast family tree database, the Once Upon A Time In Glenravel and Glenravel DNA Facebook pages and our own operations. We then got our guests hands on braking, scutching and hackling flax before lots of sharing around the open fire in the ceili house. We are excited to be involved in this ongoing project, none more so than Sabrina and Lorna who are off to Waterford for a jolly . . sorry, I mean return visit at the start of November.
During the year we also welcomed the North Antrim Community Network and their Glens Men group to the farm to let them see what we are doing and how we can possibly work together to support each other in the future.
We have been busy getting hands on at our pilot farm all through the year, with a hedge laying workshop in the autumn and taking a first coppice of our willow over the winter. We also prepped and planted another 500 willow shoots. Recently we ran a launch event for Weaving The Sally Rod, our willow revival for 2025. Everyone got to hear about the plans while making besoms and decorating them into witches brooms for Halloween decoration. Open to all, over several dates throughout the year, participants in this revival will get to learn about propagating and coppicing willow, learn some weaving skills, produce items and take them to market. Get in touch or keep an eye on our social media posts to find out more and see how you can get involved.
The concept for Tenth Glen Heritage Farms originally evolved over a couple of years through the Cultivating Community Farms project run by Coopertive Alternatives and Jubliee Farm. March saw the culmination of that project with a, hopefully not final, meet up of the groups involved and the launch of an impact report produced at the end of the program at an event in the Imagine Belfast Festival that we were honoured to be asked to speak at.
Within the project, we worked with the other groups to develop an outcome based interpretation of community farming which was defined as: A process of collaborative transformation at the intersection of land, community and enterprise, a statement very aligned with Tenth Glen Heritage Farms objectives. The report summary can be read here
In December we attended an International Synergies resource matching event. The aim of these events is to reduce waste and the theme is one persons waste is anothers treasure. We have had a few useful collaborations from this meet. We received a lot of good pallets from Sensata Technologies in Antrim some of which have already been used to make our tables. Also we have been able to supply large fertilizer tote bags, waste from the local farming community, to a charitable project in Belfast.
By far the most beneficial connection made, provided us with the very enjoyable opportunity to do a clear out of the now closed down University of Ulster Jordanstown Campus. We collected three loads of kit – in true farming style . . . I like to think that was the first sheep trailer in the uni car park! We were pleased to distribute furniture, equipment, even some electronics among local groups including the Primary School, PTA, Playgroup and Parish Centre. This service will be both a very valuable resource for us going forward, but also we see potential with it to support the sustainability of local farming, facilitating with reuse of farm waste.
Through group activities and individually our team have continued to build networks across varied sectors in Northern Ireland including farming, craft, environment, tourism, wellness and social care. As well as learning and bringing knowledge and skills into the group and the community, through these networks we have made some very supportive contacts and wish to thank the numerous people who have provided financial and professional support to us throughout the year. We also want to thank our community and our families whose support has been critical to us in this very busy year. We were overwhelmed with contributions made to our crowd-funder for the furnace festival and the input and feedback we have received throughout the year has been really encouraging and motivating.
We are going into 2025 with the same objectives of reaching out to our community, demonstrating what we are about and maintaining an open door for anyone to get involved. We will also continue to evaluate our progress against the aims of this unique project and take direction from our community, to ensure the long-term sustainability of everything we do. Alongside our Traditional Skills / Furnace Festival in 2025 we are planning for various projects similar to Weaving the Sally Rod, projects that tap into interests in heritage, environment, agriculture, craft and wellness and that will all be open to anyone to get involved in. So join our mailing list and keep an eye on our social media to stay updated.