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27th April 2018

Innovative New Ways to Discover our Heritage

Two innovative new ways for tourists and locals to find out about their heritage are being installed at Camlough Lake and Victoria Locks this week.  The new audio story devices called “U-Turn-Around” machines are part of our interpretation and signage project.

The U turn-around is a unique, wind up, dynamo powered digital sound store. Visitors will be able to select one of four different stories at each site in either English or Irish, and a few turns of the handle is all that is needed to play the message. The units are small and do not detract from the views at the sites, and are robust and weatherproof.

The LPS worked with community groups to identify which stories local people wanted to tell the world about their place. Scripts were then written featuring two characters: Sophie and her granddad. In each of the light-hearted stories, Sophie discovers more about her locality and its heritage and talks to her granddad about his memories and stories.

Local volunteers Bara O’Muiri and his daughter Roise, were selected to be the voices of Sophie, and her granddad and the pair recorded the stories in both English and Irish. The recordings were made and edited at local Take Six sound studio and the technicians there were incredibly helpful in adding sound effects recorded from the two sites which add atmosphere and reality to the stories.

“Select…turn…and listen, these U turn-around devices are such a simple way for visitors to find out more about their location and its stories” said Roísín Mulgrew chairperson of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council

“This technology doesn’t require any mains electricity and is green and sustainable. The recordings contain far more information than a traditional interpretative panel, and the stories mean that everyone can enjoy finding out about these lovely sites” she continued.

Stories from Camlough include ‘Born from Fire and Ice’ about the geology of the area and ‘Wild Swimming and Triathlons’ looking at the sporting heritage of the lake.  ‘Better than a Zoo’ explores the wildlife of the Camlough and finally ‘The secret tunnel’ spins some yarns about the old hydro-electric plans for the lough. Meanwhile, the Victoria Locks device tells the wonderful stories of how the lock works, the history of the canal, the links between the sea and Fathom as well as the helping people to identify the wildlife of shore and mountain.

 

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