Wild Child Activities
Heritage Week has a Wild Child Day within it. This year, 2026, it is on Saturday 22nd August.The Ellen Hutchins Festival runs during Heritage Week in August in the inner Bantry Bay area and includes activities for children and families that feature plants and nature on many days of the Festival.
Below, you can see a preview of this year’s events for children and look back at previous years to see what activities have taken place.
And don’t forget the free leaflets (and downloads) for self-guided explorations of seaweeds, mosses, lichens and trees. See HERE
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This year – 2026 – the wild child / family activities in the Ellen Hutchins Festival in August include an Explore the Shore session, looking at rock pools at Gearhies led by Dolf D’Hondt (campaigner, diver, chair of the Fair Seas Steering Committee and local Coastwatch Coordinator) and Julia Cooper (marine expert and photographer) on Saturday 15th August in the afternoon.
There are children’s animal art sessions at the Workshop in Bantry on Tuesday 18th August (morning and afternoon) and free children’s nature art workshops in the gardens of Bantry House on the afternoon of Wednesday 19th August. A free Junior Rangers session will run in Glengarriff Woods on Thursday 20th August in the afternoon.
A free Plant Detectives family trail takes place in the Peace Park in Bantry – in the afternoon on Saturday 22nd August, with an opportunity to use microscopes and hand lenses. On Sunday 23rd the microscopes and hand lenses will be at Future Forests, Kealkill, in the afternoon.
The Festival thanks its funders for again supporting the children’s activities in 2026. The Plant Detectives family trail and the Festival’s activities at the Bantry Show are supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under the County Heritage Plan Funding 2026. A County Cork Arts Grant is supporting the free Children’s Nature Art in Bantry House’s gardens and subsidising the Animal Art sessions at the Work Shop Bantry. The UCC Sustainability Institute (formerly the Environmental Research Institute) is supporting the Children’s Nature Art and the Plant Detectives trail. Bantry Credit Union is supporting the Children’s Nature Art.
Previous Years
In August 2023, 2024 and 2025, there was a self-guided family trail – Plant Detectives: leaves and stems – at Future Forests, Kealkill, ending with an opportunity to use microscopes and hand lenses. This will be back on Saturday 15th August 2026 – in a different venue – the Peace Park in Bantry. Free, drop in, no need to book. 3pm to 5pm.
The child and family activities in the 2025 and 2023 Festivals had funding from the Environmental Research Institute of UCC.
Plant Detectives was developed with a Cork County Council Heritage Grant in 2023. The Children’s Nature Art sessions in 2023 and 2024 had sponsorship from Bantry Credit Union. For some years up to 2021 and in 2024 they had funding from a Cork County Council Arts Grant.
Wildlife in the woods with the rangers
Location: Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve
In 2023 and 2024, Children and their parents joined the local National Parks & Wildlife Service Rangers to find out more about the wildlife in the woods, from the smallest bugs to biggest mammals. After a short introductory talk, the group went on for an exploration in the woods.
In 2023 this event had funding from the Environmental Research Institute of UCC.
Nature art with plant materials
For many years, either in the stableyard at Bantry House or on the terrace lawns there, under a parachute shelter and a gazebo, there have been sessions on children’s nature art for 6 to 12 year olds. Two artists with different activities in half hour sessions. In 2024 Sue van Coppenhagen ran Creative Adventures with Leaves, Wax and Paint and there was Flower and Leaf Pounding and Tree ID Disks with Shia Tremayne. Free.
Access to Bantry House Gardens was free on the day, and there is a self-guided Tree Trail leaflet specifically for the Gardens available whenever the Gardens are open.
See also the self-guided Moss Hunt and native Twelve Tree Trail that can done online or be downloaded and printed off.
In 2023 this event had funding from the Environmental Research Institute at UCC. For many years up to 2021 and in 2024 it had funding from a Cork County Council Arts Grant. For many years it has had sponsorship from the Bantry Credit Union.
See images below from previous years’ Wild Child events.
