Hometree is thrilled to invite you all to join us for the highly anticipated third edition of the Ardnaculla Summer School. Ardnaculla Summer School is a community and ecology festival promoting learning, connection, and regeneration.

Hometree’s mission is to be a conduit to the natural world and the people who know how to restore it and are curious to get involved. These events will be gently facilitated, deeply informative and help move us a step forward in living in partnership with nature. So if you are a farmer, landowner, student of the world, or generally interested in connecting with nature and understanding the challenges of working within complex systems, these three days are for you.

Education - As the ecological decline increases interest in nature has soared. If we don't understand nature, how can we be expected to protect it? Only when we recognise that our health, well-being and future are inextricably entwined with those of the natural world that its true beauty and worth become apparent.

Afforestation - Establishment of a permanent forest and agroforestry. Native woodlands are a critical part of Ireland’s natural heritage and culture and are uniquely important for biodiversity. They provide homes to numerous woodland mammals, birds, insects and plants that can thrive nowhere else. Such forests reflect our traditional landscape and restore astonishingly diverse benefits, from carbon sequestration and water filtration to habitat provision for many creatures.

Conservation - The management of nature and Earth's biodiversity to avoid habitat destruction, excessive extinction rates and the erosion of biotic interactions. Become a conservation member. Nature has a prolific ability to regenerate itself, and observing its recovery can be a thrilling experience. In many instances, nature can heal itself and in others, humans can greatly assist it. Working with leading experts, Hometree works to re-establish thriving ecosystems resilient and legally protected over the long term.

Ardnaculla Summer School 2024 is a part of Dinnseanchas Project and a recipient of the Creative Climate Action fund, an initiative from the Creative Ireland Programme. It is funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. The fund supports creative, cultural and artistic projects that build awareness around climate change and empower citizens to make meaningful behavioural transformations. For more on Creative Climate Actions, see here.

8:00 a.m.
Mindful Movement in Nature with Katie Ahern, Hometree HQ Outside

8:30 a.m.
Off-Site - Ringforts Visit with Aindrias de Staic and Edel Barry
Off-Site - Ancient Woods Visit with Seán Ó Gaoithín

9:00 a.m.
Nature writing: Awaken your creative process with Dr Easkey Britton, Hometree HQ Classroom
Meadow Weaving with Julie Griffiths, Hometree HQ Outside
Making Meadows with Mark Bryson, Hometree HQ Cottage 

11:00 a.m.
Farmland Biodiversity with Fiach Byrne, Hometree HQ Outside
Deep Adaptation workshop with Matt Smith, Hometree HQ Cottage
Nature Sketching with Dana Tagar, Hometree HQ Outside
True Harvest Seeds with Debbie Gillies, Hometree HQ Classroom
Off-Site - Invasive Cherry Laurel Workshop with the Gaelic Woodland Project

12:00 p.m.
Hometree Tour with Jeremy and Mitch, Hometree HQ Outside

2:00 p.m.
Hometree Update with Matt, Ray, Sarah and Jeremy, Hometree HQ Classroom
Pathways in Landscape with Tadhg O'Sullivan, Hometree HQ Cottage
Lives of Lizards with Linda Lyne, Hometree HQ Outside

3:00 p.m.
Creativity and Change with Tania Banotti, Zoë Rush and Shane Finan, Hometree HQ Classroom
Irish Aspen Project with Daniel Buckley, Hometree HQ Outside

4:00 p.m.
Irish Wildlife Sounds with Seán Ronayne, Hometree HQ Classroom

6:30 p.m.
Evening Event with talks, panel discussion, food and music, Pot Duggans

Aindrias de Staic
Aindrias is an Irish actor, musician and one of a new generation of Irish storytellers. He performs in both Irish and English.

Avery McGuire
Avery has worked as a professional forager for 10 years, supplying restaurants and markets with wild food. She started foraging in the UK for one of Britain's leading wild food experts where she learned to identify over 200 species of wild plants, mushrooms, and seaweeds. Since moving to Clare 5 years ago she continues to forage and expand her ethnobotanical knowledge.

Baiba Šustere
Baiba is a certified Meditation and Forest Therapy facilitator. She is also Hometree's communications and social media manager.

Cormac McGinley
Cormac McGinley is a geologist and a biologist. He features regularly in television productions about land and nature. He grew up in the small fishing community of Teelin, West Donegal. He runs taliored talks and walking tours under his business, Cormac's Coast.

Dáithí de Mórdha
Dáithí is an ethnologist and historian from County Kerry and is adjunct instructor in history and anthropology at Sacred Heart University in Dingle

Dana Tagar
Dana is a multi-styled illustrator and a creative director with over 10 years of experience in the design industry. Dana has taught creative thinking on different platforms. Dana initiated and leads Ennistymon’s Sketching Club.

Daniel Buckley
Dr Daniel Buckley works as a District Conservation Officer in South Kerry for the National Parks and Wildlife Service. He has an academic background in the study of Irish bat ecology and genetics. Daniel has a keen interest in trees and woodland and, since 2017, has been conducting research and conservation work on Irish poplar species.

Debbie Gillies
Debbie is the CEO true harvest seeds, a charity dedicated to preserving indigenous wildflowers in Ireland. She is dedicated to collecting wild seed and storing it for future generations.

Dervla Baker
Dervla Baker is an artist, film-maker and photographer. Her work has been featured in a number of shows both nationally and internationally. Baker works as a freelance film-maker and photographer, documenting primarily artistic events, festivals and exhibitions.

Easkey Britton
Dr Easkey Britton is a social ecologist, surfer, writer, and artist from Donegal. A member of Hometree's Board of Trustees, her work explores the relationship between people and nature. Easkey is the author of several books on our human relationship with water, including the award-winning, Ebb and Flow.

Ebanie Powell
Ebanie is a member of the Natural Voice Network and creates a space which is open to all voices, regardless of experience or ability. Songs are taught by ear in a relaxed, inclusive and joyful environment.

Edel Barry
Edel is an archaeologist from Kilfenora with a special interest in the built environment.

Eimear Cleary
Eimear is a spatial epidemiologist with the WorldPop Research Group at the University of Southampton. Her work uses Geographic Information Systems to understand how ecology, climate and population dynamics shape the transmission of infectious diseases.

Fiach Byrne
Fiach is an Agri-Environmental Officer based in Kerry. As a zoologist, he has studied many insects and birds with a particular focus on species associated with farmland, such as the charismatic Red-billed Chough. He is particularly interested in regional development, landscape conservation, and in connecting communities to their landscapes.

Gaelic Woodland Project
The Gaelic Woodland Project is a 100% volunteer-based, skill-sharing charity for ‘people-powered reforestation’. With the help of donors and supporters, they’ve recently purchased 11 acres of land in Co. Mayo to afforest, while also converting invasive species into a free source of biofuel. Eoghan Connaughton holds a MSc in Environmental Sciences from Trinity College. He founded the Gaelic Woodland Project in 2019, motivated by a desire to give Ireland a long-standing, community-owned new native woodland. Santiago Rial is a Designer and gaelic heritage researcher from Argentina. He's been a Director of the Gaelic Woodland Project since 2021, inspired by the need to bring people together in service of ecological restoration.

Grace Wells
Grace Wells is writer-in-residence in the Dinnseanchas project. She is an award-winning eco-poet and environmental writer. Nature, spirit-of-place and environmental concern are the main themes of her writing. Within Dinnseanchas, Grace will write about the role of language in the ecological crisis.

Jack O’Donovan Trá
Jack is a conservation biologist experienced in on the ground conservation of marine and terrestrial species and of environmental campaigning. He has worked in conserving curlews and whales and is currently the communications officer for Fair Seas, who are campaigning for marine protection in Ireland.

Jennifer Ahern
Jennifer Ahern is an artist and environmental anthropologist. Using an engaged methodology, Jennifer is currently conducting a PhD research study that is examining the nature of transformative change in communities addressing sustainability challenges, in both rural and urban contexts.

Jeremy Turkington
Jeremy is Hometree's Seed Collector and Seed Bank Coordinator. He has a Honours Degree in arboriculture and urban forestry and a foundation degree in rural development and countryside management. Jeremy specialises in genetic integrity of Forest Reproductive Material.

Jess Beresford
Jess is an ecologist who has recently joined Hometree. She has specific interests in restoration ecology, nature based solutions and the circular economy.

Jessica Williams
Jessica is the project manager on Hometree’s Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project. Before joining Hometree she worked for various conservation NGOs across Europe and has a background in international relations.

Julie Griffiths
Julie's creative practice circles broad issues of rurality, hospitality, (e)migration, environment, and climate - creating spaces for gentle yet radical conversations. Julie uses textile processes to engage with the abundance and atrophy of the landscape.

Katie Ahern
Katie is Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher, the founder of CorkLotusYoga. She has completed a 300 hour neuromuscular yoga therapy training and spent a year living in a mindfulness community in Thailand under the teachings of Thich nhat hanh.

Linda Lyne
A Kerry native with a master's in zoology from UCC, Linda Lyne has a grá for the wilds of Iveragh. Her travels have taken her from Antarctica to the Galapagos and beyond to see all kinds of animals, but she now champions Irish wildlife - from bats to birds and her beloved common lizards.

Manchán Magan
Manchán is a writer, documentary-maker and traveller who has made over thirty travel documentaries focusing on issues of world culture and globalisation. His work explores the insights the Irish language offers into the landscape, lore and psyche of the country.

Mark Bryson
Mark is a consultant in species rich meadows, native wildflowers, brush and combine seed harvesting, and hydroseeding.

Matt Smith
Matt is the co-founder and CEO of Hometree Charity. In 2013 Matt also co-founded a regenerative agriculture farm. Matt holds a foundation degree in Natural Science and is a published writer and owns an annual ocean-based publication.

Mitch Corbett
Mitch is a co-founder of Hometree. In 2013 Mitch also co-founded a regenerative agriculture farm and was the head gardener at the Cliffs of Moher Yoga centre. When he’s not out planting, harvesting, building or fixing things he reaches out to get people interested and involved in our tree planting days.

Patrick Mulvihill & Heather Griffin
Heather Griffin and Patrick Mulvihill collaborate at the intersection of art, design and futures to bring communities together and create new narratives for our transitional times. Currently, they are artists working on Hometree’s Dinnseanchas project.

Rob Yorke
Rob has lived across the wilder parts of the UK and as a self-confessed ‘naturalist – hunter’, winning a Nature Prize at aged 9 cemented a lifelong interest in the environment. Wearing two hats, Rob is a rural chartered surveyor and a seasoned broadcaster. Rob's diverse experiences over 25 years led him to found his Environmental Dialogue Broker services.

Róisin De Buitléir
Róisín is a visual artist, educator and curator. She has worked with glass since 1982, drawing inspiration from her cultural heritage. Her recent work concentrates on climate action and building awareness around social responsibility for civic action. She is currenlty working on Hometree's Dinnseanchas project.

Sarah Casey
Sarah Casey is a primary school teacher, yoga teacher, Forest School practitioner and avid mountain enthusiast. In 2022, she founded Soul Stuff, an outdoor social community of like-minded people, born from a love of nature, adventure, community and all the good stuff that sets your soul alight.

Sarah Rose
Sarah is a folk herbalist, makes medicinal remidies that support whole-body health and vitality and teaches herbal wellness classes and workshops. She lives on the BIg Island of Hawai'i where she runs her herbal business, Earth Petal Herbals.

Seán Ó Gaoithín
Seán is the Head Gardener at Glenveagh national park and the author of Native Woodlands of County Donegal.

Seán Ronayne
Seán Ronayne, Surveying Ecologist and the creator of Irish Wildlife Sounds, has recorded over 160 birds throughout Ireland so far with a goal of recording all of Ireland's regularly occurring bird species.

Shane Finan
Shane Finan assembles artworks from interactive contemporary technologies, found objects and traditional artistic media. His work is based in rural environments and considers the role of technologies in human and nonhuman entanglements. He always collaborates, most recently working with lichen, artists, epidemiologists, historians, salmon and fungi.

Síomha
Síomha is a musician and activist from Clare now based in South Kerry. Her songs in English and Irish dance the line between folk, jazz and neo-soul, with the rugged landscape of the West of Ireland as her muse. She is currently working on Hometree's Dinnseanchas project.

Tadhg O'Sullivan
Tadhg O'Sullivan is a film-maker and multi-disciplinary artist. In his documentary films he has engaged deeply with diverse communities, from Irish prisons to the Japanese underground music scene. He works with themes of place, movement and landscape, with an interest in the politics belonging to a place and permission to move freely within it.

Tania Banotti
Tania Banotti is the Director of Creative Ireland, a government initiative to place creative arts at the heart of Irish communities. Tanya has extensive experience in arts, advertising, media, politics and economics. She has also been Chief Executive of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland and of Theatre Forum Ireland.

William Bock
William Bock produces innovative socially focused projects for and about diverse communities and the environments they inhabit. Born in Cork with a diverse cultural family background, his work explores the connections between identity, heritage, ecology and migration. He is currently working on Hometree's Dinnseanchas project.

Zoë Rush
Through practices such as soundwalks, visual scribing, and co-creation workshops, Zoë facilitates experiences that invite participants to explore their relationship with place and envision sustainable futures for themselves. She is currently working on Hometree's Dinnseanchas project.