Festival Review: 2015
Relive the festival
The Ellen Hutchins Festival in the Bantry area, as part of Heritage Week last year, in August 2015 was a great success, attracting large numbers of people to all the events, and winning the Heritage Council’s Hidden Heritage Award.
The 2015 Ellen Hutchins Festival achieved its target of bringing Ellen’s story back to life on the 200th anniversary of her death, and ensuring that it will not be forgotten. It was very fitting that this first ever celebration of Ellen’s life took place in her home territory of Ballylickey, Bantry, Glengarriff and Whiddy Island.
Two plaques were unveiled that will be lasting memorials to Ellen. The plaque at the site of Ellen’s burial in Garryvurcha Churchyard in Bantry, will ensure that her story is included in the Heritage Trails round Bantry for years to come. The other plaque at her birthplace and home, Ballylickey, on the shores of Bantry Bay, honours the place where she undertook her work on the non flowering plants such as seaweeds and lichens that made a significant contribution to scientific knowledge. The plaque is by the house in which Ellen was born and lived, and the river and seashore that she knew so well and loved so dearly.
The exhibition of prints of Ellen’s watercolour drawings of seaweeds in Bantry House was a very special ‘homecoming’ as they had all been drawn by Ellen at Ballylickey from specimens collected from the shores of Bantry Bay and Whiddy Island. This was the first time that her drawings had ever been exhibited in the Republic of Ireland. The evening of the opening with a delightful demonstration of botanical art was much appreciated by those who came to see it.
The Bantry Library exhibition about Ellen Hutchins: the Young Woman, her Work and her World, was able to stay in place for three months, until early November, rather than just a fortnight, and there are plans for one or two of the five panels to be displayed in the Bantry Tourist Office next season.
The two illustrated talks were extremely well attended and provided fascinating insights into Ellen the young women, and her study of botany. The pop up exhibition, which featured letters and books of Ellen’s and what might have been her magnifying glass, appeared at Bantry House, Bantry Library, Ballylickey House chalets and Mannings Emporium in Ballylickey.
The walks ‘In the footsteps of Ellen Hutchins’, in areas that she frequented for plant collecting, and with botanists as guides, were an opportunity to experience the places through a specialist’s eyes and learn more about the seaweed, or lichens, mosses and liverworts. The botanists were incredibly knowledgeable, and very skilled at imparting that knowledge to others.
Many of those attending events came to more than one, and there was a developing sense of community during the week, as the same faces reappeared and conversations were continued. It started up a mountain on the first Sunday, where one highlight was seeing the tiny dwarf willow on the summit just where Ellen had discovered it, (found this time when one member of the group stood up from sitting on it during lunch). It ended in Glengarriff Woods on the second Sunday, near a spot by the waterfall that Ellen loved, and with a reading from one of her letters describing it. Inbetween there were memorable visits to Whiddy Island, Ballylickey and Ardnagashel, a wonderful boat trip and a terrific children’s event.
There was talk of ‘having started something’ and a number of people left events calling out ‘See you next year, same time, same place!’
These three blogs provide personal accounts of the Festival or parts of it:
Shevaun Doherty: Botanical Sketches
Roaringwater Journal: Roaringwater Journal
John Crellin: Floral Images
The Ellen Hutchins Festival in Heritage Week 2015 was presented by Bantry Historical Society, National Parks and Wildlife Service and members of the Hutchins family.
Funding was provided by The Heritage Council, Cork County Council, Bantry Historical Society and National Parks and Wildlife Service, Bantry Bay Port Company, the Bantry and Ballylickey Development and Tourism Associations, and Bantry Charity Shops; and with support from local organisations.
Many thanks to all those who made the Festival possible, and made it as successful as it was. Both those who presented the events, and those behind the scenes and beforehand putting it all together. Those who hosted the exhibitions, talks and events; those in archives, museums and herbaria who gave permission for images to be used; those who commented on and edited text for the exhibition; those who cleaned picture glass, those who framed, mounted and labelled the pictures; those who gave advice on exhibiting, or designed and laid out the exhibitions; those who sourced images for the talks; those who organised the plaques, fixed the plaques to walls or hung pictures; those who sourced chairs and helped park cars; those who provided and sorted power cables and projectors; those who collected plaques or pictures; those who put up posters or made displays possible; those who slid photos into plastic pockets and trimmed card; those who wrote press releases and did interviews; those who applied for funding, filled in forms, wrote emails, and obtained permissions and licences; those who took the photographs and wrote the blogs. A heartfelt thank you to you all.
Programme of events in the first Ellen Hutchins Festival – National Heritage Week 2015
Celebrating Ellen Hutchins: a festival to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Ireland’s first female botanist, which took place in West Cork, August 2015. The festival ‘followed in the footsteps’ of Ellen, visiting her favourite plant hunting grounds such as Whiddy Island and Glengarriff Woods. There were also talks, an exhibition about Ellen’s life & work, visits to her birthplace, home and burial site, and an exhibition of her artwork.
The 2015 festival was a great success, and won the Heritage Council’s Hidden Heritage Award. A second Ellen Hutchins Festival is being run in August 2016.
| Event Dates, Times, Locations | Ellen Hutchins Festival Events | Location / Meeting point | Further Information | Imagery |
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Sun 23rd August 10:30-15:00 |
Knockboy (Cnoc Bui) botanical mountain walk (Dr Rory Hodd with Lizzy Maskey and Charlie McCarthy – booking was required.
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Manning’s Emporium, Ballylickey. Take away lunch available from here. |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Monday 24th August 14:00-16:00 |
Nature walk and willow weaving for children (Jessica Mason) booking was required
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Main car-park, Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve. |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Thursday 27th August 18:45-19:15 |
Unveiling of plaque to commemorate Ellen Hutchins as a Natural History pioneer
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Garryvurcha Graveyard, Bantry |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Thursday 27th August 20:00-22:00 |
An illustrated talk about Ellen Hutchins’ life and story (Madeline Hutchins)
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Bantry Library |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Thurs 20th Aug – Sat 12th Sept 9:30 – 17:30 |
An exhibition about Ellens life and work
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Bantry Library (closed Sun & Mon) |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Friday 28th August 11:00-12:30 |
Ellen’s birthplace and home – a walk around Ballylickey (Madeline Hutchins & Eliane Zimmerman) followed by a pop up exhibition
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Ballylickey – meet at Ouvane Falls. Pop-up exhibition: Mannings Emporium |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Friday 28th August 14:00-17:00 |
Ardnagashel and the Hutchins Arboretum (Bill Hutchins and Eliane Zimmerman)
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Rent an Irish Cottage, Ardnagashel , parking by the stable block. |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Friday 28th August 20:00-22:00 |
An illustrated talk about Ellen’s botanical achievements (Dr Donal Synnott)
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Park Hotel, Glengarriff |
archive lisitng of 2015 event
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Sat 29th August 11:30-13:00 |
Boat trip to Whiddy Island via Ardnagshel – booking was required
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Bantry Pier |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Sat 29th August 14:30-16:30 |
A botanical walk on Whiddy Island (Dr Micheline Sheehy- Skeffington
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Bank House, Whiddy. |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Thurs 20th August – Sat 5th Sept 10:00-17:00 daily |
Exhibition of Ellen’s botanical art
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Bantry House (Upper Landing) |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Sat 29th August 18:00-20:00 |
Official opening of art exhibition and botanical art demonstration by Shevaun Doherty
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Bantry House (Upper Landing) |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Sunday 30th August 11:00-13:00 |
Seashore walk at Ardnagashel: seaweeds and lichen (Dr Howard Fox and Maria Cullen)
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Rent an Irish Cottage, Ardnagashel , parking by the stable block |
archive listing of 2015 event
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Sunday 30th August 15:00-17:00 |
Woodland walk in Glengarriff Nature Reserve: flora ‘then and now’ (Dr Fionnula O’Neill)
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Main car-park, Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve |
archive listing of 2015 event
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