On this day, 29th November 1811, 210 years ago, Ellen wrote to Dawson Turner. The letter is a delightful one, with passages about the young girl who helped Ellen with her work on seaweeds, lots about lichens Ellen has found and her enthusiasm for William Jackson Hooker’s drawings (plates) of liverworts. She thanks Dawson Turner…
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The Ellen Hutchins Festival team is delighted with its latest publication — a beautiful book on lichens, by Paul Whelan, with stunning colour photographs and clear descriptions of 40 of the most common species that you can find in Glengarriff Woodlands and Harbour in West Cork. The lack of any good book on lichens is…
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Ellen could wait no longer for a letter from him, she felt that she must send her latest find, the fruit of a lichen, to Dawson Turner with a letter, written on 7th May 1811, 210 years ago today. This is the fourth in a series of five letters, written On This Day 210 years…
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On Thursday 20th August 2015, an exhibition opened in Bantry House of Ellen Hutchins’ watercolour drawings of seaweeds. This was their first showing in the Republic of Ireland and their home coming. They were drawn by Ellen Hutchins, at Ballylickey, about four miles from Bantry House, on Bantry Bay. Ellen was born at Ballylickey in…
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This delightful book, The Wild Plants of Bere, Dursey, Whiddy and other Islands in Bantry Bay, published by Sherkin Island Marine Station in 2013, puts on record the variety of wild plants found in this part of Ireland famed for its dramatic scenery, mild climate and sub-tropical gardens. The book examines the history, geography,…
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Ellen Hutchins of Ballylickey was botanizing in the Bantry Bay area of West Cork, Ireland, long before collecting seaweeds became a fashionable hobby for Victorian ladies. Water Colour of Bantry Bay by Louisa Shore Nightingale (nee. Hutchins) Between 1805 and 1812 Ellen was discovering new seaweeds, mosses and lichens, and sending her specimens and drawings to…
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