After an hour touring the gardens and orchard of a local farmer, I feel I should share his knowledge of old apple varieties while it is still verdant in my mind.

From studies of history and geology, it is clear that what we now call Ireland experienced cycles of climate change. We have rocks that formed under tropical seas and others formed in hot deserts. We are not a million years away from what we call the Ice Age. Most of our present-day soils were formed from rock debris laid down during and after that period. Over the last 2,000 years, there have been warm periods and mini ice ages.

Peter Dowdall muses on the significance of midsummer to gardeners throughout the millennia.

Halloween is a mish-mash of many cultures, but its roots can be found in Ireland’s pagan tradition, writes Carl Dixon.

Two Bronze Age crannogs, burned down two years ago, were today re-opened to the public after being completely rebuilt.