Earlier this year, the Inchbeg Fishing School was generously awarded a grant by the Veolia Environment Community Fund to develop the field as a resource for environmental education in the local community. The company's water management division, Veolia Water, is headquartered in Kilkenny.
The beautiful bird hide! Any suggestions for a name?!
Our first step was to commission this beautiful bird hide, which doubles as a classroom, followed by the owl box. The river Nore is a special place for birds, and is protected under European Legislation on behalf of the Kingfisher population, which is threatened in Europe. There are also flocks of lapwings, golden plover in winter, plus little egrets, cormorants, herons, swans, and many many more.
Soon, I'll be doing a short course to learn how to write learning materials for schools, and plan to start collaborating with local groups, schools, organisations etc in the coming year once we've developed everything. If you know of anyone who might be interested in using the facilities here - particularly local people and kids' groups - please get in touch! hannahelizabethhamilton (at) gmail (dot) com.
Getting the ground posts in - holes dug by hand... eeek!
Laying out the frame, in sopping weather...
Starting to take shape
King o' the castle
The staircase... oooooh!!
Inside: benches, makeshift holder-uppers until the winch is finished, and a tree (sycamore)
And the view from the other side. We're thinking of chopping out the beech tree,
cos it's kinda in the way... any thoughts on that, readers?
Mum enjoying the view
The view from the hide - the field opposite will be a wetland full of wading birds come winter
Paddy and John taking a well-deserved rest
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