Bord na Móna Celebrates 75 Years of Industrial Heritage this National Heritage Week

Posted on August 7, 2015August 7, 2018 by Neil Farrell

Explore Bord na Móna’s Lough Boora Discovery Park as it celebrates 75 years of Industrial Heritage this National Heritage Week. To mark Bord na Móna’s expansion beyond peat harvesting, National Heritage Week kicks off with a special commemorative event taking place in the stunning Lough Boora Discovery Park, Co Offaly on August 22nd 2016 from 12pm-4pm.

Lough Boora Discovery Park is the award-winning public amenity that showcases Bord na Móna’s commitment to biodiversity and peatland rehabilitation.

Come along and celebrate, share and enjoy 75 years of Industrial Heritage with a fun-filled family day featuring entertainment for all ages and artisan food stalls filled with mouth-watering local produce to whet the appetite. Keeping the kids entertained on the day will be the Super Sticky Glitter Bomb arts and crafts workshop, innovative windmill making workshops, a butterfly and dragonfly crafts area where children will be using recycled materials, super spy scavenger hunts, bouncing castles, a magic show and toy peddle tractors for the younger attendees. For some educational fun children will also learn how to grow their own Sunflowers in the colourful gardening section.

Visitors to Lough Boora Discovery Park will also get the opportunity to become familiar with historical Bord na Móna machinery from eras past with the Bord na Móna Heartland Expo looking back on and celebrating over 75 years of history in the local community.

National Heritage Week takes place from August 22nd to 30th. This year the week-long celebration will play tribute to the Irish industrial and design heritage that has paved the way for the world we live in today.

Bord na Móna is a responsible and progressive Irish company with an unrivalled heritage which we are celebrating during National Heritage Week.

For free registration for this event please click here

Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages for more information.

‘Lough Boora’ – A photographic exhibition by Birr Photography Group

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Neil Farrell

The ‘Lough Boora’ exhibition, by Birr Photography Group, is being featured in the Lough Boora Discovery Park Visitor Centre for the month of August 2015. The exhibition will feature photos by 7 members of the group.

Lough Boora Discovery Park presents an ever changing canvas where sculptures emerge from the landscape against a backdrop of wildflowers, grasslands, lakes and wetlands in the heart of Ireland. The variation in the light throughout the day and the seasons offer a visual treat to any photographer to be creative with their art.

Creativity in photography depends on the photographer being able to visualise the image before the subject is actually captured. Birr Photography Group has endeavoured to photograph Lough Boora Discovery Park with an original style using Panoramas, Little Planets and Reflections as their inspiration.

“Panoramic Photography” creates impressive wide images by “stitching” together 3 or more single shots to capture images with elongated fields of view. This photographic technique works very well with the stunning landscape vistas of Lough Boora.

“Little Planets” is a unique way to process panoramic photographs into unusual pieces of art. Panoramic images can be transformed with a special “polar effect filter” using the computer programmes Photoshop or Gimp to create circular images that seem to wrap the scene around into a planet shape.

Using “Reflections” in photography can produce some amazing effects and beautiful images. Reflections in the abundant water sources around Lough Boora can completely alter an image from something fairly straightforward into a more richer or abstract work of art.

Birr Photography Group has regular meetings, talks, discussions and demonstrations on a variety of photographic topics on Thursday evenings from 8pm at Craughwell’s Pub, Castle Street, Birr. New members are always welcome.

For more information on Birr Photography Group, please contact 086 152 0605 or see the website.

National Bike Week Whizzes into Bord na Móna’s Lough Boora Discovery Park

Posted on May 27, 2015June 17, 2015 by Neil Farrell

Prepare to discover and explore Bord na Móna’s Lough Boora Discovery Park as it is transformed into a cycling frenzy to celebrate National Bike Week this June!

Taking place on Sunday 21st June from 12 noon until 4pm, Bord na Móna is inviting families and cycling fanatics to join them for a huge range of fun-filled activities for the whole family, while also taking the opportunity to explore the spectacular cycle trails Lough Boora Discovery Park is renowned for.

Exciting activities on the day will include a Superhero fancy dress bike race, a slow bike race – the only rule is that cyclists must keep moving!, a thrilling obstacle course packed with plenty of surprises and a tight rope contest with prizes for the winners. Lough Boora’s resident Bike Doctor Pat Barrett will also be on hand to offer tips to attendees on how to maintain their bicycles, along with the need-to-know advice on how to fix punctures and how to adjust saddles. For families that don’t have their own bikes, there will also be a bike hire service available. You can also hire a baby trailer that hook onto the back of the bike which is suitable for 2 younger children up to 5 years.

As well as the thrilling cycling activities, there will also be a number of exciting events for younger attendees to enjoy including a Lough Boora Superhero Competition where kids get to dress up as their favourite superhero and be in with a chance of winning a fantastic prize for the best costume. There will also be face painting, balloon modellers and a bike safari along the Pavillion and the spectacular Sculpture Trail.

Sara Byrne, Bord na Móna, said of the upcoming event: ‘We’re delighted to be hosting this Family fun day on Sunday 21st June as part of National Bike Week. Lough Boora Discovery Park has cycling routes from 3km to 50km so we have something for all ages and abilities. Bring your own bike or hire one at the visitor centre to get involved in the fun activities that we have planned on the day”.

Anyone wishing to attend the event can register here.

Please note: Bike hire will be on a first come, first serve basis. Registering will not ensure that a bike will be kept aside for you.

David T Kavanagh exhibition in Lough Boora

Posted on May 20, 2015May 20, 2015 by Neil Farrell

Whatever the time of day, Lough Boora has plenty of beauty to be seen!

Local landscape photographer, David T Kavanagh, will have his ‘Boora – Dawn to Dusk’ exhibition in the Visitor Centre at Lough Boora Discovery Park from the 20th of May to the 2nd of June. The exhibition features a collection of his favourite photographs captured in the Discovery Park over the past twelve months.

David says “Lough Boora is one of my favourite places in Offaly to take photos. It is so accessible; just a few steps from the carpark and you are transported into a unique environment featuring lakes, wetland, sculptures and trails”. He added “a key attraction for me is the effect that big skies have on the expansive terrain of Lough Boora. The changing skies paint the park in a range of subtle colours. I am lucky to be able to experience the light at its best – at dawn and at dusk”. The images on display feature the tranquillity of the area and aim to show familiar subjects in the extraordinary light that is to be experienced at the start and end of each day. The award-winning Visitor Centre is open every day from 10am to 6pm.
David T Kavanagh is an outdoor photographer, based in Tullamore, who specialises in capturing images of the landscape of Offaly and surrounding counties. He is a member of Offaly Crafty – the Art & Design Collective supported by the Offaly Local Enterprise Office.
For further information, David may be contacted on 085 8618929 or by email at davidtkavanaghphotography@gmail.com.

Bord na Móna’s Lough Boora Discovery Park Scoops Travel Industry Award

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Neil Farrell

Bord na Móna’s Lough Boora Discovery Park has scooped the Best Environmental Tourism Innovation award at the biennial Irish Tourism Industry Awards. The prestigious ceremony took place on Friday 24th April at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Dublin.

Celebrating Ireland’s most successful and innovative tourism initiatives, services and experiences, this is a hugely welcomed accolade for Bord na Móna which has developed Lough Boora into a spectacular amenity for families, walking enthusiasts, cyclists and angling fanatics.

The award is in recognition of Lough Boora Discovery Park’s continuous commitment to the development and promotion of innovative tourism. Lough Boora Discovery Park is a first in class example of an amenity that emphasises harmonious integration with the environment and maximises protection of environmental resources.

Last year, Lough Boora Discovery Park officially opened its on-site visitor centre and café which acts as a point of information for visitors providing maps of designated nature trails and walking and cycling tracks. The aim of the design for the visitor centre was to be innovative and empathetic to the surrounding environment. The architectural objective was to preserve and enhance the visual environment. At each stage of the build, the focus was on the use of green material in order to produce an eco-visitor centre. The visitor centre was officially opened by Minister Alex Whyte in September 2014..

Recently the parklands hosted the ‘Boora Bunny Egg Hunt’ family day out which attracted over 3,000 visitors. Open all year round, Lough Boora Discovery Park also includes a bike-hire initiative for families and visitors to enjoy the spectacular sculpture trail which also offers educational information allowing visitors to embrace the fascinating history of Lough Boora.

Bord na Móna’s Sara Byrne said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this incredible and reputable award. Lough Boora Discovery Park is a fantastic amenity for the local community. The team there work tirelessly to ensure that each visitor enjoys a fantastic experience and with dedicated cycling and walking trails, gorgeous lakeland’s and historic sites we encourage all of our visitors to grab a map, and enjoy and discover everything that stunning Lough Boora has to offer’.

For more information and updates on the event follow us on Twitter @loughboorapark or join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LoughBooraParklands.