Farm Walk in Marlbank

The McGovern farm lies in close proximity to two of Northern Ireland’s most popular tourist attractions - the Marble Arch Caves and the Cuilcagh ‘Stairway to Heaven’. The landscape associated with both attractions could not be more different and is mirrored within the McGovern farm. Low growing plants such as wild thyme and lady’s bedstraw occur on the limestone outcrops of the lower slopes with windswept hawthorn trees and hazel scrub striking features of this karst landscape. Swallow holes and underground caves occur within the surrounding area. However, purple moor grass and rush pasture and heathland habitats occur on the acidic peaty soils on the upper slopes, leading eventually to the expansive blanket bog habitat on the slopes of Cuilcagh Mountain. Amongst the flora found here is devil’s-bit scabious, heather and the peat forming sphagnum mosses.

Nestled in the picturesque landscapes of Cuilcagh, McGovern’s Farm is home to approximately 350 breeding ewes. The farm’s commitment to sustainable practices ensures the highest quality of care for both livestock and land. Sheep management combines traditional and modern methods, including the unique addition of Bobby the llama as a guardian of the flock. Sensitive habitats are actively managed under the DAERA Environmental Farming Scheme, demonstrating a dedication to environmental conservation. Portions of the land are designated as Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI), highlighting their role in conserving biodiversity. Recent drain blocking works are part of a peatland restoration project aimed at enhancing the natural ecosystem. At McGovern’s Farm, traditional farming blends seamlessly with modern sustainability practices, ensuring a thriving future for both the farm and the environment.

The Leitrim Hawthorn Project is a community heritage project which focuses on the holistic celebration of the Hawthorn Tree in County Leitrim. It is designed to sensitively research Hawthorn traditions throughout Leitrim towards a sustainable celebration of this folkloric icon.

Tara Baoth Mooney is an experimental sound-wrangling artist, composer, stitcher and performer. She works through memory and the senses to tease out the aural, olfactory and performative nature of elements — non human and human. Tara works with the clumsy giantess to explore these elements. Tara is one of the collaborative team members that created Mammary Mountain, a VR immersive experience that explores dis-ease as it manifests in the body and extends to the land.

Recently as artist in residence at the Hawkswell in Sligo, she was exploring women’s fowl husbandry as a subversive currency through the egg. (EgggE hUUUs) is supported by The Arts Council Agility Award and The Hawkswell Theatre. A year-long Creative Exchange at The Leitrim Sculpture Centre culminated in a collaborative show Synaesthesic Kinship which explored the relationship between plants, people and place. Her work with grief, grievability and living plant matter is on-going since 2009. In 2011, she received a distinction from the London College of Fashion for her work on the grievability of place and people with bryophytes and lichens as active participant catalysts. In 2022, Mooney finished an art-based, eco-psychosocial practice-led PhD which focused on the relationship between humans, lived experience, and the non-human elements which surround people within personal eco-systems.

Gerry is a writer and suckler farmer. He tends to his cattle on the same land that his family have farmed for many generations. In a collaboration with visual artist Anna Macleod, his work on their Arts Council-funded grant has culminated into a series of stories which along with four other short stories were published in his book called The Clainings Tree. In 2023, he won the MJ McManus Literary Award.

Gerry is one of the coordinators of a Heritage Council-funded project called The Leitrim Hawthorn Project. A participant in Amach to the field, stories told by Gerry as part of that project have been aired on national radio shows. Gerry contributed to the First Fridays events at the Dock Arts Centre where he read one of his short stories on the opening night. On an upcoming project, Gerry will be working with traditional singer Fionnuala Maxwell which will involve them exploring the role of the cow in traditional song, storytelling, folklore and practices. This project is supported by the Arts Council Agility Award 2024.

Dancer, choreographer, film maker, farmer and community activist, Edwina Guckian is firmly rooted in her home county of Leitrim. Having grown up in a family of musicians and dancers and being influenced further by the locals of Roscommon and Leitrim, her unique style of Sean Nós dancing developed from an early age. She is the artist director of Leitrim Dance Festival as well as Áirc Damhsa now in its 20th year — a culture club for children and adults to celebrate Irish culture through music, song, dance, folklore and Gaeilge.

Recent work includes reviving the Mumming tradition in Leitrim through the Sowing the Seed project which sees over 350 Leitrim people growing oats organically on their land and using the oats and straw sustainably. In 2022, she was awarded the TG4 Gradam Comaine for her outstanding contribution to the traditional arts, and in 2023, the Constance Markievcz Award by the Department of An Taoiseach for a project focusing on the impacts of the 1935 Dance Hall Act. In 2024, Edwina launched her first children’s book, Sparks from the Flagstones — a treasury of Irish folk traditions and calendar customs.

As part of the Creative Ireland Shared Island Programme, Leitrim County Council and The Dock are working with Leitrim Sustainable Agriculture Group and Ulster Wildlife to present a series of six creative Farm Walks curated by Natalia Beylis throughout 2024.

As part of each Farm Walk, farmers will lead a talk about their farm, current practices and future plans alongside a talk by an invited artist whose work resonates with that farm, its environment, heritage and other special characteristics. The project draws attention to the synergies and common interests between artists and farmers and highlights common farming, environmental and creative interests in such themes as biodiversity, farming in harmony with nature, water quality and climate action.