Here's how to get involved in a 'heritage keeper' project in your school or area

It could be a project on local signage or heritage trails or the construction of a wildlife pond...

Students from Oranmore Boys National School’s 6th Class helped to launch ‘Heritage Keepers 2023’. They wrote and illustrated their own book 'Legends of Oranmore' using knowledge gleaned from the local library and stories from local experts

At a time when both our natural and built heritage face so many challenges, a fresh programme to recruit new ‘keepers’ or caretakers of our heritage is always welcome news.

‘Heritage Keepers’ is a free national programme aimed at primary schools, youth groups and communities to help them to work together to explore their local built, natural and cultural heritage and complete a funded action that enhances their local area.

The project has been developed by the team at the Burrenbeo Trust, the internationally renowned and award-winning landscape charity, based in the Burren, County Clare. After a successful pilot in 2022, Heritage Keepers has expanded to include more schools and communities in 2023.

So far, some 20 communities and schools have taken part and produced some lovely projects on oral history, local signage, heritage trails and booklets. Actions for biodiversity included the construction of wildlife ponds and wildlife signage in the community to create more awareness. Five two-hour workshops will take place in Spring 2023 — a combination of in-person, online and blended learning options.

A sense of place

According to programme coordinator Áine Bird: "Heritage Keepers aims to empower people to explore and discover their own local heritage. This helps foster a sense of pride, ownership and ultimately responsibility towards both their community and environment."

David Wasil, Conor Eignor, Juha Matthew Yoon and Julius Ubbor of Oranmore Boys NS, County Galway

Through the workshops, participants look at the layers of their local place — starting with the geology and landscape features, followed by archaeological and historic features left by previous generations; and then consider the local biodiversity.

Participants use a variety of resources to investigate what habitats or species are found in their area and if and how they are protected. Discussions around land use —past, present and future — also form part of the programme. The interconnectedness of all of these elements, as well as participants’ personal connections and feelings around their place, are threads that run through the programme.

One community group member who took part in the 2022 pilot scheme said: “I think being educated that I can make a difference, and being given skills to follow through with was a highlight for me. Biodiversity really had me intrigued and I since signed up for a biodiversity online conference. I learnt at age 73, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!”

Participants, whether school children or adult members of the community, are given the opportunity to consider how their local area has developed over the years and question how they would like it to develop in the future.

All groups are supported to prepare a local action plan, and a fund is available to cover any costs associated with the actions. Examples of successful biodiversity actions from the pilot phase include: wildlife surveys; school fieldtrips to local farms; design and installation of interpretive signage for local biodiversity; and the design, production and installation of bird and bat boxes on a school's grounds.

Other schools created a wildlife garden on their grounds, or a wildlife pond. One particularly nice project saw the creation of a shelter from which one can watch wildlife.

Burrenbeo Trust organises ‘Heritage Keepers’ — a free national programme aimed at primary schools, youth groups and communities to help them to work together to explore their local built, natural and cultural heritage and complete a funded action that enhances their local area

One of the school teachers involved in the pilot found “the very act of focusing in on our local space, through the different heritage lenses, … awoke or deepened in many of the children their sense of belonging in their communities, their sense of pride in their place and ultimately a sense of agency in regard to it".

And isn’t that connectedness the most vital key to creating a more caring, greener future! Perhaps we can all connect a little more with our local place, its natural heritage, and become local Heritage Keepers.

• If you think your school, youth, or community group may be interested, click here for more details and submit a short expression of interest form (deadline November 30)