Latest News from the Ring of Gullion

It’s time to pick the nation’s favourite park

Posted on: 17th September 2015

This year a record breaking 1,582 parks and green spaces were awarded the prestigious, international Green Flag Award. These award winners included Slieve Gullion Forest Park. You can find all the winning parks at greenflagaward.org

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Last call for budding photographers to enter Ring of Gullion Photo Competition.

Posted on: 14th September 2015

Newry Mourne and Down District Council and the Ring of Gullion AONB project are calling on all budding photographers to get their photos in before the competition deadline of the 23th September. The theme this year is ‘The World around us in the Ring of Gullion”, which photographers are free to interpret any way they choose. This could be our Built, Cultural or even Natural Heritage.

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Come and celebrate all things Red Squirrel in Slieve Gullion

Posted on: 14th September 2015

The Ring of Gullion and Cooley Red Squirrel Group to offer a wild day out for all at Slieve Gullion Forest Park on Saturday 3rd October from 1.00pm to 4.00pm. Come along to this free event to learn more about our furry native red squirrels and autumn in the park.

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Village SOS – Are you missing out on valuable support?

Posted on: 14th September 2015

Village SOS is an exciting new opportunity for rural based organisations to get practical support to develop a new project or add value to an existing project. It is about rural communities being enterprising in their approach to developing a solution to a local issue. The project may have a particular social economy focus but it simply can be about trying to develop a more sustainable service to meet local need.

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The future of private forestry grants in Northern Ireland

Posted on: 11th September 2015

The new Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme was formally approved by the European Commission at the end of August 2015 and it is hoped that support measures for forestry will be announced this autumn. The key headline is the switch to a focus on larger scale commercial planting on ground of limited agricultural productivity. Support will remain for smaller broadleaved woodlands such as those supported in the last programme and these environmentally focussed woodlands will be grant aided thought the new agri environment scheme. The private forestry sector in Northern Ireland are optimistic that the new support structure will give a much needed boost to new afforestation as the amount of woodland established over recent years has dwindled to a level of about 200ha per annum.

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Local company nominated for prestigious design award

Posted on: 4th September 2015

Local company, Wibble Web Design & Development has been nominated for a DANI award – Northern Ireland’s premier digital industry awards for its work on the revamp of the Ring of Gullion’s new website. The website revamp was part of The Ring of Gullion Landscape Partnership, a Heritage Lottery Fund programme to conserve and enhance some of the region’s most treasured landscapes. Newry, Mourne and Down District Council are managing the £1.4 million programme. The scheme aims to engage people with the Ring of Gullion Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and surrounding landscape.

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The Ring of Gullion is the perfect classroom for up and coming training

Posted on: 4th September 2015

This Autumn sees a smorgasbord of training in the Ring of Gullion, and what better place to learn how to capture and edit video, train to be a World Host, improve your creative writing, research your ancestors, improve your business though Social Media and learn all about ‘What’s about in the Wild’ than this very special Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

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An Evening of Stories & Airs of County Armagh

Posted on: 20th August 2015

The Ring of Gullion team are inviting locals and people from further afield to an entertaining evening with Frances Quinn,…

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Planning to put in a pond? Need some help?

Posted on: 20th August 2015

As part of the Ring of Gullion Lúnasa Festival, the Ring of Gullion team have joined forces with The Conservation Volunteers to provide a workshop on pond construction and getting the most out of your pond. The workshop will start at 10.00am on Thursday 27th August in Jonesborough’s Pastoral Centre. Booking is through the Ring of Gullion website www.ringofgullion.org.

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Batwoman to the Rescue

Posted on: 20th August 2015

Find out what happened when a young male Pipestrelle Bat was found in our office kitchen sink.

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Investigation underway into cause of Crayfish Plague

Posted on: 18th August 2015

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Inland Fisheries Ireland IFI) are investigating the cause of death of large numbers of dead freshwater crayfish, which have been found in the Bruskey/Erne River at Killydoon, near Ballinagh Co Cavan. The kill affected White-clawed Crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes along a short stretch of the Bruskey River where over 600 dead crayfish were found. Fish and other freshwater animals are not affected.

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Go Wild in the Ring of Gullion! Fun activities for budding nature detectives!

Posted on: 9th August 2015

Get in touch with nature this week with a nature walk in Slieve Gullion Forest Park on Wednesday 12th August or find out more about plants and mini-beasts in Derrymore House, Bessbrook on Thursday 13th August.

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