Horizons

This week's Heritage & Habitat roundup

Barn-a-building

Old farm buildings are often left to tumble down as larger new sheds accommodate more animals and fodder for modern approaches to farming. And while some farmers find new ways of using the older buildings, there are hundreds of examples of beautiful stone farm buildings lying idle across the countryside. The Heritage Council’s Traditional Farm Buildings grant scheme encourages farmers to repair and reuse these buildings. Grants are available for conservation works on buildings constructed before 1960 using timber, brick, stone, tile, state or thatch. Application packs from heritagecouncil.ie. The closing date for receipt of applications is Mar 26.

Grow It Yourself week

The new Grow It Yourself (GIY) not-for-profit initiative is attracting vegetable gardeners of all levels of experience in various parts of Ireland. There are more than 40 GIY groups across 15 counties and 50 other groups in development. The local food initiative will hold its first annual GIY week, starting today. Throughout the week, there will be talks, garden visits, seed, tool and plant swaps, demonstrations and growers’ meitheals. See giyireland.com for full details.

Learn Bog standards

The Irish Peatland Conservation Council’s Save the Bogs campaign has championed the cause of bogland conservation in Ireland for 25 years. The IPCC runs an evening course on bogs every year at the UCD Adult Education Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4. The course “Wet, Wonderful and Wild Bogs and Fens” covers wildlife on bogs, the preserving powers of turf and the campaigning efforts of the Dutch and the Irish for bog conservation. The six-week course begins on Tues, Mar 2 at 7.30pm and includes a field trip to the Bog of Allen on Sat, Mar 27. Booking details on 01 7167123, ucd.ie/adulted or e-mail adult.education@ucd.ie.

Ecoweb

withouthotair.com

The website of the book Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Airby David MacKay, recently appointed chief scientific adviser to the department of energy and climate change in the UK. A very useful site with lots of reliable reading material.