€3m grant for heritage and culture lovers

NATURE and culture lovers are being given the chance to invest €3 million in their favourite heritage projects — whether it involves the restoration of a local monument or the protection of bumblebees in Wicklow.

Communities and families alike are being encouraged to apply for the annual Heritage Council’s grants, €500,000 of which has been specially set aside for bio-diversity schemes.

This year’s recipients of wildlife heritage grants included projects to protect the mountain bumblebee in Wicklow, a survey of barn owls in Offaly as well the monitoring of Munster moths in Limerick. Other projects included studies of Donegal butterflies as well as research on spiders in Dublin.