Living History
ellen Hutchins & the early 1800s
Living History events coming up in the Ellen Hutchins Festival August 2026
Seaweed pressing with a heritage slant
Saturday 15th August 4pm to 6pm €35 A workshop with a heritage slant and a modern twist – join us to follow in the footsteps of Ellen Hutchins, Ireland’s first female botanist with Frances Gallagher (aquatic biologist) and Annette Skade (poet). Frances will talk about the wonderful local seaweeds that Ellen would have been studying and then lead you through the process used by Ellen and her contemporaries to produce botanical specimens for identification purposes. The specimens are also beautiful and can be framed and hung.
The pressing technique has changed very little and most of the equipment is very similar, apart from one modern ingredient. Frances provides freshly collected seaweeds and all that is needed to undertake the process and you can go home with a number of seaweed specimens to be dried.
In the second half of the workshop, poet, Annette Skade, will provide a process to enable you to write a short poem inspired by one of your pressed seaweeds, to take home with it.
Held at the Work Shop, Bantry. Booking required, opens 1st July.
Frances wrote the Seaweed Pressing Instructions- available free here:
https://ellenhutchins.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Seaweed-pressing-leaflet-to-download.pdf
Sunday 16th August
Watch this space – more information soon about where in / near Bantry you can see and explore seaweed and find out how it was collected, carried, used and studied in the past. There will be free activities and demonstrations. You can see a wonderful range of seaweeds, including hidden details under a microscope or through a hand lens. There will be replicas of the large baskets, called creels, used to gather seaweeds. Frances Gallagher, the Festival’s seaweed specialist, will explain past and current uses of seaweeds.
Historical re-enactor, Carrie O’Flynn, will be in costume of the early 1800s, and you can try writing with a quill pen, folding your letter and sealing it, in the style of the early 1800s.
Letter Writing: Early 1800s style
Tuesday 18th August: 5pm to 6:30pm
Historical re-enactor, Carrie O’Flynn, will be in costume with all the period appropriate items to enable you to learn to write with a quill pen using oak gall ink. Correspondence was hugely significant in Ellen’s story and you can see one of Ellen’s letters to her brothers about botany while you experience writing in the same style.
A 40 minute mini workshop with historical information followed by the practical writing session.
Also available – free – drop in / stay and observe the process.
Bantry Bookshop, William Street, Bantry
5pm to 6:30pm: mini workshops 5pm and 5:50pm starts. €10 for mini workshop, booking required. Free to observe.
Basketry: weave your own willow rattle
Sunday 23rd 2pm and 3pm start times. €15 Fee. Mini workshops (45 minutes) will enable you to learn the basics of basket-making with Ciara Strange & take home your own beautiful willow rattle. The workshops take place in the beautiful surroundings of Future Forests. Booking required, opens 1st July.
Basket making demonstration
Sunday 23rd 2pm to 4pm Free. There will be the opportunity to see one of Ireland’s top basket-makers at work, as Yvon O’Flynn demonstrates her skill during a live demonstration at Future Forests. Have you been before? Do come again as Yvon will be making a different style of basket this year. There will also be a display of traditional styles of baskets. You can drop in and watch her while she works, or stay the whole two hours to watch her complete a basket!
Ellen Hutchins at Ballylickey: archives
Thursday 20th 10:30am to 12:30pm – free, drop in
At Mannings, Ballylickey
Ellen (1785-1815) botanist and botanical artist, lived almost all of her short life in Ballylickey and this is where she made her specimens, drawings and wrote her letters. At Ballylickey, in the lovely Manning’s Emporium, there will be an opportunity to find out more about Ellen from her great-great-grandniece, Madeline Hutchins, and treat yourselves to an excellent snack of your own choice. This is an informal free drop-in event, with information to browse, archives on display and your questions answered.
You can see a selection of Ellen’s letters to her brothers about botany and books that she owned on a range of subjects from botany to poetry. Some books have the remains of pressed plants between their pages. Also on display will be botany books and illustrations of the period that we know that Ellen used.
The Ellen Hutchins Archives Cabinet will be in Bantry Library during the Ellen Hutchins Festival Saturday 15th to Saturday 22nd (closed Sunday and Monday) with a selection of archives including three seaweed specimens (on loan from the herbarium of Trinity College Dublin’s Botany Department) and one of her drawings. There will be a small table top display of material related to Ellen, with photographs of some of her drawings and specimens. Another display cabinet will feature information on lichens and the screen will show a short film – Learning to Love Lichens – and stunning photos of lichens local to Bantry, taken by Paul Whelan. Paul was a leading Irish lichenologist and had been part of the festival for many years and the author of the Festival’s book on Oceanic Lichens. Sadly, he died last December, therefore this lichens display is in his memory.
Living History events in the Ellen Hutchins Festival August 2023
Connections with the Past
Looking back at two time periods to explore what everyday life was like and what practices, skills and knowledge has been passed down to us. Firstly, the past through memories – including those recounted by the previous generation and covering life in the Bantry area in the twentieth century. Secondly, the past researched – the early 1800s, when Ellen Hutchins lived at Ballylickey. A conversation between three members of Team Ellen – local historian and resident, Angela O’Donovan; historical re-enactor, Carrie O’Flynn; and researcher on Ellen, Madeline Hutchins, chaired by Áine Brosnan.
A wide range of topics were touched upon – including breakfasts, the names and uses of plants, family hierarchies and language used for family and friends, sewing and knitting, making and mending clothes, waterproofs, footwear, transport and the state of the roads, the use of coral sand as a field fertiliser, writing and posting letters. Some archives and artefacts were shown, and some techniques demonstrated.
The event was held at the Ouvane Falls, Ballylickey.
Seaweed & Sealing Wax 3
A performance / talk indoors at the Ouvane Falls, Ballylickey.
This event wove together a reading of extracts from Ellen’s letters to fellow botanist, Dawson Turner, with contextual notes; author Gráinne Lyons discussing and reading from her book about Wild Atlantic Women; a short Irish film about the wildflowers of Long Island near Schull; and a presentation of Ellen Hutchins’ archival material.
How did the friendship grow deeper between Ellen Hutchins and Dawson Turner? It was an opportunity to live through a moment in time and a slice of two people’s lives. To hear their story through extracts of their letters read by performers, Karen Minihan (PlayActing Theatre) – live and Robin McLoughlin (Actor) – recorded, with introductory and explanatory notes by Finola Finlay (Roaringwater Journal).
What resonates now? Author Grainne Lyons read from the chapter from her recently published book Wild Atlantic Women: Walking Ireland’s West Coast that tells Ellen Hutchins’ story, discussing why she decided to include Ellen and her experience of walking in Ellen’s footsteps.
Over the course of their seven year correspondence, 1807 – 1814, the friendship between botanists, Ellen Hutchins of Ballylickey, Bantry and Dawson Turner of Great Yarmouth, England, developed a closeness that went way past the seaweeds and plants they were identifying. They never met but developed a surprisingly intimate relationship through the sharing of family events and the exchange of views on a range of topics, including poetry, with Byron featuring strongly.
Madeline Hutchins, as Ellen’s relative, presented some archives and artefacts from Ellen’s life including her copy of Byron’s Childe Harold, other books she owned, an original watercolour drawing by Ellen of a seaweed, and several seaweed specimens on loan from Trinity College Dublin.
There as also the showing of a beautiful new short film on the wildflowers of Long Island near Schull.
This was the third and final piece in the series Seaweed & Sealing Wax. It also featured in the West Cork Literary Festival on 14th July with author Marianne Lee (not Grainne Lyons) and artist Oonagh Hurley see HERE
It was an Ellen Hutchins Festival production with funding from a Cork County Council arts grant.
Living History events in the Ellen Hutchins Festival, August 2022
She Gathered Seaweeds on the Seashore
Whiddy Island
The session led by Frances Gallagher, aquatic biologist, and Carrie O’Flynn, historical re-enactor and period costume maker, started on the strand by Whiddy Island’s pier at low tide with exploring the seaweeds and learning more about them. This included who would have been gathering seaweeds in the early 1800s and why they did so. The group saw the clothing the seaweed gatherers would have worn and the baskets they would have used.
Frances shared her knowledge of Bantry Bay’s seaweeds and their uses as food and soil improvers. She then guided the group in gathering small seaweed pieces for a practical session spreading the seaweed specimens on paper. Everyone took home their own specimens to dry out and keep, and also some of the ‘magic ingredient’ that will enable them to make more another time / at home.
Carrie showed the equipment that Ellen would have used over 200 years ago and there were images of Ellen’s seaweed specimens and drawings to examine.
Hand lenses and microscopes were available enabling the group to see beautiful tiny details of the live seaweeds that are invisible to the human eye.
This event had funding from a Cork County Council Heritage Grant and from the Environmental Research Institute at UCC.
Seaweed and Sealing Wax 2: Letters from 1812 with botanical art and poetry
An outdoor performance / talk event, on the lawn at SeaView House Hotel, Ballylickey, with seating under a parachute shelter.
The correspondence between Ellen Hutchins in Ballylickey and fellow botanist, Dawson Turner, in Yarmouth, England covers botany, botanical art, and also their love of poetry, along with delightful every day and family details.
Those attending heard engaging extracts from their letters brought to life by actors, Karen Minihan and Robin McLoughlin, with helpful notes of explanation of period details and ‘who’s who’ provided by host, Finola Finlay (Roaringwater Journal).
There was the opportunity to see world class botanical art in action with award winning Irish artist, Shevaun Doherty. Shevaun was painting during the performance and talked about botanical art in Ellen’s time and now.
Author and poet, Laura McKenna, enriched the performance with a reading of her poems inspired by the correspondence between Ellen and Dawson and talked about what drew her to the botanists’ letters.
At the end of the performance, those attending could see Shevaun’s art close up, and a selection of Ellen Hutchins archive materials, including an original drawing, letters she wrote to her brothers and poetry books she owned. These were explained by Madeline Hutchins (researcher on Ellen and her great great grandniece).
This event had funding from a County Cork Arts Grant, and a generous donation.
Traditional Willow weaving
at Future Forests, Kealkil
Basket making demonstration with Yvon O’Flynn. A chance to see the traditional way of making willow baskets along with a display featuring a wide range of basket types including the creels, big rucksack styles ones for collecting seaweed.
Make a willow rattle
Participants learnt simple basket-making techniques and made a rattle in 30 minutes or so under the guidance of expert Ciara Strange.
Using locally-grown willow, these mini-workshop sessions were held outdoors under a shelter.
Ellen Hutchins Archives Cabinet
Bantry Library
In the Reference Section of the Bantry Library, there was the newly commissioned, beautiful oak cabinet by furniture designer and maker, Matthew Burt. In its drawers you could see an original watercolour by Ellen of a red seaweed, a selection of her letters to her brothers about her botanising with postal stamps from the early 1800s, and a number of books that belonged to her.
On a table nearby, you could see photographs of more of Ellen’s drawings and her seaweed specimens, as well as transcribed extracts from her letters.
The cabinet was funded by a Heritage Council grant in 2021. This was its first public appearance.
Previous years
Letter Writing – early 1800s style
Previous Festivals have had Living History sessions where you could learn writing practices, write with a quill pen and hear about Ellen’s correspondence; with Carrie O’Flynn, historical re-enactor and Madeline Hutchins, researcher.
The sessions were run in the period setting of the SeaView House Hotel, Ballylickey, a house built next door to and matching the house that was Ellen’s lifetime home. Using accurately-researched and hand-made clothing and museum-quality reproduction items, re-enactor Carrie introduced participants to letter-writing practices of the early 1800s. They learnt about postage systems, stationery and etiquette before trying their hand at writing using period-appropriate quills and paper. They saw and handled(carefully) some of Ellen’s letters to her brothers and heard extracts from them.
See The Early 1800s page for information on letter writing, costumes and customs.
In addition to the Living History sessions, Festivals have contained Pop Up exhibitions presenting archives associated with Ellen Hutchins.
Ellen Hutchins' Story in 10 Objects
The Pop Up Exhibition: Ellen Hutchins’ Story in 10 Objects allowed you to discover the story of Ireland’s First Female Botanist (1785-1815) through a drawing, her letters, books, and the type of microscope and writing materials she used.
The story of a remarkable young woman who showed great skill and determination in her study of seaweeds and other non-flowering plants. You could peer through the type of microscope Ellen used, and compare this with a modern hand lens. Handle one of her letters, see an original drawing, and appreciate a lichen up close.
