Fresh baked fadge (potato bread for those of a different dialect) on the griddle, local butchers sausages fried up in homemade butter, chutneys made from locally grown produce and some homemade shortbread to finish with mulled wine and good craic round the open fire in the ceili house cottage – Tenth Glen Heritage Farms Christmas meeting – feel like you are missing out? . . get in touch tenthglenhf@outlook.com.
An enjoyable way to close off a fantastic year. We started 2025 working on a diffferent cottage, the homestead of ‘King of the Glens’ Mickey McIllhatton. Taking on the preservation, securing and making safe of this important part of our local heritage, we had it ready for public viewing as part of the Glenravel Historical Society’s, Mickey McIllhatton 50th anniversary celebrations at the end of April and spent a very rewarding afternoon hosting the open house and sharing in the nostalgia of lots of visitors.
The following week we held Folk Wisdom weekend, our annual Traditional Skills Festival combined with the Glenravel Furnace Festival. A collaborative contribution from the Ulster Iron Smelters, the Irish Iron Heritage Foundation (IIHF) – Furnace Festivals of Ireland, Glenravel Art Club, the Ulster Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, Glenravel Historical Society, the RSPB and a collection of local crafts people and skilled practitioners made for a very interesting, inspiring and enjoyable weekend.
Twenty-four furnace festival smelters built and fired ten furnaces, the most at any furnace festival in Ireland to date, and produced some record-breaking iron, a 7.5kg iron bloom from 20kg of haematite ore. Haematite is our local ore and at 55-70% has a relatively lower iron content ie. 20kg of ore only contains little more than 11kg of iron. A 7.5kg, almost 70% yield of iron from the smelt was another record for Ireland furnace festivals. Research and experimentation is a central element of this event and as one of now five smelting festivals in Ireland this year its contribution is important. Nine of the new smelters that IIHF and ourselves put through the apprentice training at the last festival in 2024, returned and were joined by 5 new entrants. We are proud to continue to play our part in supporting this pioneering group as they become formally established as the Ulster Iron Smelters.
Also at the Folk Wisdom Weekend, The Glenravel Art Club embraced the charm of the rustic setting and held their first exhibition of their members work since 2017, a brilliant display of some excellent talent, much appreciated and admired by members and visitors alike. The Glenravel Historical Society set up residence in the traditional restored cottage onsite, plying guests with pictures, artifacts, local lore, tea, coffee & buns, an open fire and traditional music, they welcomed 6 new members into their group. We supported 3 of our local crafts people and skilled practitioners to successfully run group workshops for the first time and co-delivered a very well supported RSPB farm tour.
All of these were great examples for us also of the versatility of some of these heritage farm spaces. Around 80 people were involved in delivering and contributing to Folk Wisdom weekend, with many, many more coming from all over the country to check it out. We have set the date for Folk Wisdom Weekend next year as the 30th & 31st of May so save the date and if you would like to get involved in any way, please get in touch.
Early in the year, our Weaving the Sally Rod project group learned about coppicing willow, harvesting rods, prepping shoots and planting. Unfortunately, availability haltered a weaving workshop this summer, but plans are afoot to continue to develop this project in the new year
In early May half an acre of flax was planted on Willow and Lore farm. It was ready for pulling at the end of August and was the focus of our stand at the annual Glenravel Country Fair. A lot of interest transferred into 40 pairs of hands helping to pull flax over two weeks at the start of September. Almost 100 others have engaged in this project through tours, visits, demonstrations and conversations. The crop was dew retted in the field and we hope to arrange a visit to Mallon Linen in Cookstown to see it going through the scutching mill over the winter.
A special thank you at this point to the volunteers who helped us out over the year, from the guys who mucked in getting McIllhatton’s house ready, the musicians who kept us entertained at the Folk Wisdom weekend, the photographers who have been so generous with their time and work at our events (including credit to Joe McKay for some of these blog pictures), the members of each of the groups that have collaborated with us and the individuals who volunteered their time to help us make all this happen. Also, thanks to Glenravel Historical Society, Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust and Mid and East Antrim Borough Council who continue to support the project.
With regards to knowledge transfer, our members have attended quite a few events this year: a visit to Waterford County Council, Library and other heritage sites as part of an MEABC shared communities project; a textile mechatronics challenge with a cluster of natural fibre pioneers at which we got the chance to discuss the Tenth Glen Heritage Farms project with Minister of Agriculture Andrew Miur; Social enterprise workshops run by LEDCOM, including a pitch competition at which we won 2nd place and a £500 prize, a conference at the Royal University of Agriculture; a royal visit by King Charles III to a cluster of ‘alternative’ farming groups; the launch of the Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust prospectus at which we made a couple of very valuable connections; the Fields Good regenerative agriculture festival which ran for its 2nd successful year in September; a couple of courses including propagation and biodiversity and we have started on a resilience program being run by NACN including a series of training workshops, for community groups. All our members natural interests have continued to guide us all to visit, read, watch and otherwise connect with the knowledge and networks that continue to shape the project.
At our AGM in October we reaffirmed our aims for the next year and beyond, continuing to focus in on our six core strands of: HOMESTEAD – preservation and restoration of derelict farmsteads; SKILL – traditional skills and crafts based cottage industries: FARM – the traditional farming methods and enterprises; LAND – the natural environment and biodiversity; LIFE – the traditional way of life, recipes and remedies to cultural and social traditions and STORY – the individual histories and heritage of the area. Similar to our willow and flax projects, we intend to continue to get small engaging projects underway within each strand and feed the organic and sustainable growth of this grass roots project. In particular, we will be announcing an opportunity within our homestead strand before Christmas so follow us on Facebook for all updates.
We estimate that approximately 650 to 700 people have had engagement with the project throughout the year, either contributing to or attending events, getting involved with projects, hearing about our activities and chatting with us at events we have attended or meaningfully engaging with us online and over social media. We are especially pleased to get not one but two mentions in the Glens Of Antrim Historical Societies recent ‘The Glynns’ publication for our Furnace Festival and the flax crop. The profile and reach of the project is really taking hold with more and more third parties referencing and referring people to us. All reassuring evidence that we are doing something right. Roll on 2026
We don’t stand on ceremony at Tenth Glen Heritage Farms so if you see something happening that you are interested in or if you would like to generally be more involved in everything we are doing, please get in touch or just turn up, we are all about old school community – the door is always open. Declan (07872362614) tenthglenhf@outlook.com.