plants, seaweeds, and landscape through her story her through landscape and seaweeds, plants,

Bantry to Beara: an exploration of Bantry Bay’s Bay’s Bantry of exploration an Beara: to Bantry

FIRST FEMALE BOTANIST (1785-1815) BOTANIST FEMALE FIRST

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF IRELAND’S IRELAND’S OF FOOTSTEPS THE IN FOLLOWING

HERITAGE TRAIL HERITAGE Ellen Hutchins Ellen Ellen Hutchins HERITAGE TRAIL Specimen of Fucus esculentus prepared by Ellen Hutchins THERE ARE NINE STOPS ON THIS TRAIL Image courtesy of the Their location and access details are listed below. The grid references given are for use with Herbarium, Botany Department, Ordnance Survey Ireland maps. For Sat Nav coordinates visit www.ellenhutchins.com Ellen Hutchins Trinity College, Dublin Some stops feature historical buildings and walks nearby, others are of botanical interest. HISTORICAL BUILDING WALKS NEARBY BOTANICAL INTEREST

HERITAGE TRAIL 1 Garryvurcha Graveyard, Bantry LOCATION: Church Road, Bantry (V9982 4850). ACCESS: Within walking distance of all car parks in Bantry. Open 10am-5pm most days.

INTRODUCTION 2 Blue Hill and Beach, Bantry LOCATION: 3.5km west of Bantry (V9694 4814) - take the N71 west out of town Ellen Hutchins, who is widely regarded as Ireland’s first female and after 900m turn right (opposite the West Lodge Hotel). Turn right again after 400m and go to the end of the road. Parking available. botanist, was born in Ballylickey on the shores of Bantry Bay in

1785. This trail will take you to places that were important to Ballylickey House 3 Whiddy Island Ellen and will allow you to experience the beautiful environment birthplace and home LOCATION: The ferry to Whiddy Island goes from the Railway Pier, Bantry of Ellen Hutchins (V9901 4871). www.whiddyferry.com which inspired her to study and record the flowering plants, (photo 1910) seaweeds, mosses, liverworts and lichens around Bantry Bay. 4 Ballylickey Her story is told using her letters and the journal of a Welsh LOCATION: Ballylickey is located 6km north of Bantry on the N71. BOTANICAL ACCESS: botanist who visited her at Ballylickey. This trail provides an Parking is available at Manning’s Emporium (W0064 5293) or the Ouvane Falls. introduction to Ellen’s story but to find out more and to hear the BEGINNINGS letters and journal entries voiced, listen to the Audio Guide and 5 Snave Beach LOCATION: visit www.ellenhutchins.com Ellen became ill at school in Dublin and Dr Whitley Stokes, a Snave is located 8.2km north of Bantry on the N71 (V9961 5434). ACCESS: Parking is available at the side of the road at Snave Bridge. family friend, took her under his care in his Dublin home. When 6 she was called back to Ballylickey to help look after her mother The Ellen Hutchins Heritage Trail provides an opportunity to discover the fascinating Coomhola story of the short but remarkable life of Ireland’s first female botanist, who was born in LOCATION: and a disabled brother, Dr Stokes advised her to take up the Coomhola is located 1.7km north of Snave (V9941 5559) – take the Ballylickey, Bantry Bay, in 1785. right hand turning just after Snave Bridge. study of botany, which would encourage her to spend time ACCESS: Follow in Ellen’s footsteps, and explore the beautiful area of West Cork that inspired Parking is available near Coomhola Bridge at the trailhead for the outdoors and also give her an interesting indoor occupation: her pioneering work on plants. Visit her birthplace and burial site and experience Coorycommane Loop Walk: www.irishtrails.ie/Trail/Coorycommane-Loop/864/ examining, recording and preserving the plants she collected. the unique diversity of places that Bantry Bay offers to the plant hunter, from the 7 shores and islands of the bay to the lush expanse of Glengarriff Woods and the high Priest’s Leap He introduced Ellen to James Mackay, botanist at Trinity College mountains of the Cork and Kerry border. It is intended that you drive between the trail LOCATION: Priest’s Leap is located 6km north of Coomhola (V9851 6116). Dublin, and Mackay sent Ellen’s specimens to many of the stops but at each point there are options to walk and explore the area. Follow the sign posts from Coomhola Bridge. eminent botanists of the day. ACCESS: Parking is available in a small layby at the summit of the road. An audio guide to the trail is available 8 Ellen showed “extraordinary talents and extraordinary industry” via www.ellenhutchins.com Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve LOCATION: in her pursuit of botany and had the advantage of living by Glengarriff Woods is located 1km north of Glengarriff village on the N71 Please wear suitable footwear for walking. Check local forecasts and tides. (V9182 5704). Bantry Bay, an area with a magnificent biodiversity and remote ACCESS: Car parking and picnic areas are available in the woods. See plants up close by borrowing a hand lens from Bantry Tourist Office www.glengarriffnaturereserve.ie enough not to have been explored. Ellen quickly became a (open April to October). valued member of a community of specialist botanists. One in 9 Identification guides for plants & seaweeds can be bought from Bantry Bookshop. Hungry Hill and Healy Pass particular, Dawson Turner, in Yarmouth, England, became Ellen’s LOCATION: Adrigole is 18km south west of Glengarriff on the R572 towards For information on other activities and sites around Bantry, see www.visitbantry.ie B Castletownbere. Turn right in Adrigole for the Healy Pass, travel 7km to the highest l greatest mentor and friend. Although they never met in person, a d d point (V7866 5357) e Visit www.ellenhutchins.com for: r their correspondence led to a deep friendship that developed w ACCESS: Parking is available in a layby overlooking Adrigole Harbour. ra - audio guide to trail ck F over a seven-year period. Dawson Turner named one of his uc - in depth information on Ellen Hutchins us v esiculosus daughters Ellen in her honour, and asked her to become the - links to online plant identification resources child’s Godmother. - details of the annual Ellen Hutchins Festival which takes place in and around Bantry during Heritage Week in August.

Watercolour of Fucus asparagoides This trail leaflet, and the accompanying audio guide, were produced in 2017 by the Ellen Hutchins Festival in conjunction with members by Ellen Hutchins, 1811 of the Hutchins family, Bantry Historical Society, National Parks & Wildlife Service and Abarta Heritage. Image courtesy of the Hutchins family Photo credits: Deirdre Fitzgerald, Adrian Cronin, Clare Heardman, Sean Maskey, Madeline Hutchins, Fionn Moore, Robbie Murphy, Jenny Seawright (www.irishlichens.ie), Robert Thompson. Leafletdesigned by Jenny Dempsey. L i c Funded by The Heritage Council and the Fisheries Local Action Group South. h e n s o n Bi rch tree 9 Hungry Hill and Healy Pass 7 Priest’s Leap 6

In Ellen’s day, the most common Coomhola

S In the early 1800s, the Priest’s

t

way to travel down the peninsula 8 a

Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve g great ornament to marshy places

’ Leap was the main route s -

was by boat as the roads were h in spring”.

o between Bantry and Kenmare, The plant is typical r

extremely rough. Either way, n

of West Cork’s wetlands and is rise the Caha Mountains, with Peninsula eg St Patrick’s c but it was not an easy journey. l getting to Hungry Hill would have u

b

I their dramatic exposed layers Cabbage, Kidney Saxifrage only found in south west Ireland

r m Lewis Dillwyn wrote that Ellen’s

i been a major expedition for Ellen. s o

h s and the north western part of old red sandstone. and Irish Spurge. As with the brother organised sixteen men

S s

p Ly At its summit, Ellen would have u mosses, lichens and ferns co to carry his carriage over the of the Iberian Peninsula. Also r p g The woods were part of the od found the ancient cairn which e iu The Priest’s Leap is a steep and present here are two much less blanketing the trees, they m pass. He chose to get out and E Bantry House estate during clavatum u winding road which passes just is still there to this day. At its p conspicuous insectivorous plants, h thrive in West Cork’s mild, walk to hunt for plants. o Ellen’s time. It was a special Butterwort Large-flowered grandiflora Pinguicula eastern side are two lakes, both r below the summit of County ia damp climate. Pale Butterwort and Round- When her health was good, Ellen h place to her and she refers to Ellen recorded several relatively of which drain into the Mare’s Tail ib Cork’s highest mountain, leaved Sundew. er Ellen was fortunate to have the delighted in “going among the na finding unusual bryophytes in One shrub growing in the rare plants growing at the waterfall - the highest waterfall in Knockboy (Cnoc Buí). Lewis lovely Coomhola area nearby. mountains”. We know that she “a very favourite spot by the woods now that was not summit of Knockboy, which can Along the route, in clear weather, both Ireland and the UK. Dillwyn who visited Ellen in Part of the Beara Way, the climbed Sugar Loaf and Hungry Glengarriff Woods is a 300ha rocky, woody side of a little present during Ellen’s lifetime 1809 wrote: “The prospect still be found here today, over there are fantastic 360° views Some of the plants Ellen Coorycommane Loop Walk Hill on the Beara Peninsula and nature reserve with several waterfall particularly dear to is Rhododendron ponticum. from its summit is very grand 200 years later. They include covering much of the area that recorded on Hungry Hill can still provides a wonderful opportunity was willing to go to great lengths great hiking trails through me”. Hutchins’ Hollywort, one Introduced in the mid to late & extensive. To the southward Dwarf Willow, which at just a few Ellen explored. County Cork’s be found near the summit today, to follow in Ellen’s footsteps and to find specific plants. one of the best examples of the liverworts named after 1800s, it has become an centimetres high is the tiniest highest mountain, Knockboy, can the smooth and glassy surface discover this special place for including Crowberry, Harebell, of oceanic oak woodland in her, occurs here. invasive pest that National tree in Ireland, and Stag’s-Horn be seen to the north, Glengarriff Ellen clearly derived great of Bantry Bay with its numerous yourself. The walk starts near the arctic-alpine plant Stiff Sedge Ireland. The setting of the Parks & Wildlife Service is Clubmoss, refound recently and the Caha Mountains to the pleasure from being active, and Among the flowering plants 7 creeks & inlets formed a fine Coomhola Bridge and passes and cliff-specialist Roseroot. The reserve is spectacular, nestled working to control on an having not been seen in south west and Bantry Bay and Whiddy being useful by finding things Ellen found are some so-called contrast to the dark line of its through beautiful woodland, site is part of Hungry Hill Bog in a sheltered glen opening ongoing basis. Priest’s Leap west Ireland in over 100 years. Island to the south. for her botanist friends. She Lusitanian species, unique surrounding mountains, & a before opening out onto heath Natural Heritage Area. out into beautiful Glengarriff This ecologically important site wrote to Dawson Turner:“If I to south western Ireland and large tract of country with the and blanket bog. The trail returns Along the closest shoreline, For experienced hillwalkers, it’s Harbour. Above the woods is a Special Area of Conservation can do any thing for you pray the north western Iberian Atlantic Ocean beyond as if to the Coomhola Bridge downhill the long stretch of woodland a tough 6km climb up Hungry named Derryclogher (Knockboy) tell me. Working for oneself is Coomhola spread in a map beneath us.” through forestry and along a is Ardnagashel Estate, where very dull, but to do any thing for Hill from the top of the Healy 6 Bog. Ellen had a great appreciation of quiet boreen. Ellen’s brothers, Arthur, and Pass. The less adventurous can another person gives one spirit Glengarriff For the adventurous, it’s a later Samuel, established an beauty, both in the countryside Be sure to look out for Large- to proceed.” simply enjoy the stunning views 8 around her and in the plants she 6km return trek to the 706m arboretum. This included a series from the road. Snave flowered Butterwort, one of summit of Knockboy (only of exotic trees that came from 9 collected and viewed through Ireland’s few insect-eating plants, Healy Pass 5 recommended for serious Kew Gardens, London through her microscope. She wrote of which Ellen once described “treasures” “exquisite little walkers). Ellen’s botanical connections. Hungry Hill Ballylickey and as “a most beautiful plant and 1 4 beauties”. Garryvurcha Graveyard, Bantry Adrigole Cryptogamic means the non- 3 flowering plants – seaweeds, lichens, mosses and liverworts. Whiddy Island 1 Bantry 4 Ballylickey 5 Ellen specialised in these and 2 Snave Beach her work on seaweeds is Beach condition and had lost the use of

particularly significant. They his limbs”.

A Snave townland lies between

were little understood at the l

i c Ballylickey and Ardnagashel. In

In 1805, James Mackay, botanist h

time, and her work was indeed e 2 n 1813 Ellen and her mother moved Blue Hill and Beach, Bantry ,

pioneering. Fauna is included in at Trinity, visited Ellen in Ballylickey C o from Ballylickey to an Inn at l and suggested that she look at l the wording because Ellen also 3 e s many miles away and deposited m e Whiddy Island l Bandon, Ellen wrote that this was o c seaweeds. Ellen was delighted to p a studied seashells. when the ice sheets melted. A plaque on a small gate pillar s n i r “for better medical attention” but and her family in 1809, he was di a by the public road near the have found someone who shared um b Ellen left a significant legacy f on her cousin, Thomas Taylor wrote In the upper inter-tidal zone, taken out to Whiddy. He described her “passion for plants”, ove ng Ellen Hutchins was born in bridge over the Ouvane River and who olatum growi to botany, and her name lives Bantry Bay as “perhaps the best that Ellen’s eldest brother had Ballylickey on the shores of are seaweeds such as Bladder commemorates Ballylickey House had asked for her help. She soon on in many species that she garden in the world for the marine Along the coast north-west of thrown her and her mother out Bantry Bay in 1785 and lived Wrack and Channelled Wrack, as Ellen’s birthplace and home. sent specimens to him of new found new to science and algae [seaweeds], and they there Ballylickey sits a little gravel of the house at Ballylickey. Ellen’s there for most of her life. She of which Ellen wrote: “It is so The Hutchins family lived here discoveries she was making; in which were named after her grow in deep pools secure from beach where the impressive two older brothers, Emanuel and suffered from bouts of ill health common a plant in this country for at least four generations until seaweeds, mosses and other Coomhola River enters Bantry Arthur, were for years in disputes by leading botanists of her day that the shore is as yellow with it the ravages of every storm, and throughout her short life and died Ellen found an impressive 1,100 1921. The house was destroyed plants. eg Hutchins’ Pincushion (Ulota Bay at Snave Bridge. Ellen with each other over property. as the land is with Furze.” As the attain an enormous size”. just before her thirtieth birthday species of flowering plants, by fire in 1976 but was rebuilt to hutchinsiae) and Hutchins’ We know that Ellen had a collected seaweed and shell These caused Ellen considerable tide drops, other seaweeds such The seashore of Whiddy was in February 1815. She is buried mosses, liverworts, lichens and Fuchsia brings rich colour to the its earlier Georgian proportions. Hollywort (Jubula hutchinsiae). glasshouse and loved gardening. specimens along this shore. anxiety, heartache and anger. as kelp can be seen. where Ellen found many seaweeds here in Garryvurcha Graveyard in seaweeds around Bantry Bay. The island’s hedgerows, but although The property remains in private Her beautifully prepared new to science. She would head Mackay sent her rare plants and Ellen is known to have identified an unmarked grave. shoreline near Blue Hill is one of the now a symbol of West Cork, Ellen ownership and is not open to the Ellen spent her final months at specimens (dried plants on Lichens on the coastal rocks, off in a small boat from Ballylickey, seeds for her garden, often with at least two new species of shell spots she favoured in her search for did not find it here 200 years ago. public. Ardnagashel House, along the A plaque was erected in paper), with “Miss Hutchins include the distinctive yellow sometimes with a young servant growing instructions. including the wing shell (Pteria marine plants, and it also provides This South American species only wooded shore west of Snave August 2015, 200 years after Bantry Bay” handwritten on Xanthoria parietina. Flowering Ellen was the second youngest hirundo). girl or boy to help her over the Ellen’s caring responsibilities were Bridge, living with Arthur and his wonderful views across most of her plants recorded by Ellen which became a popular hedging plant in her death, during the first them, are held in herbaria rocks with her boxes and basket. of twenty-one children, but only considerable and there were plant hunting area. later times. Other flowering plants In Ellen’s time ‘coral sand’ also wife Matilda. Ellen moved there Ellen Hutchins Festival. Ellen is (libraries of specimens) across can be seen in this area today six of the children survived to Back at home, Ellen made family “troubles” too. Both botany called maerl was dredged from after her stay in Bandon, where include Bittersweet, Kidney Vetch that Ellen recorded on the island described as a natural history the world, and are still used forBlue Hill is a drumlin that was detailed and accurate watercolour adulthood. Her father died when include Dwarf Elder, Restharrow and her immediate surroundings Bantry Bay and used as a soil her mother died. Ellen herself pioneer in cryptogamic botany identification and research by and the low-growing shrub, she was two, and her only sister formed thousands of years ago by drawings of the seaweeds to show provided solace to her. She improver. Ellen found many was seriously ill, suffering from Creeping Willow. and Wild Radish.

and coastal flora and fauna. botanists. the movement of glacial ice sheets how they looked “when fresh”. died two years later, leaving

e wrote of walking out “to enjoy in interesting shells mixed in with a liver complaint which was n

u

H There are several way-marked Ellen with a widowed mother

m across the landscape. On the

e For a short stroll, head along the silence and solitude the delightful it. Maerl is actually a type of being treated by her doctor with r

m The island’s climate, like other b

o

e trails on Whiddy, including one and four brothers. By the age

c beach, you will see a huge variety

r

shore parallel to a little-used air softness of the night either by the coralline algae and is still dredged mercury. Ellen died at Ardnagashel

t parts of south west Cork, is u

m to a fortified battery built during of twenty, in 1805, Ellen was s u of stones of various rock types strip. This is a popular walk for seashore or by the river. Here from the bay today. on 9th February 1815. a h influenced by the Gulf Stream,

d c i Ellen’s lifetime following the failed home in Ballylickey, caring for her u r which were brought here from locals. I recover my spirits or rather n t creating a unique ecology. When y c l u o attempted invasion by Wolfe Tone mother who was by now elderly s P become calm after the agitations s the renowned Welsh seaweed u d b n and the French Armada in 1796. and ill, and helping look after her s a of the day.” p. .) botanist, Lewis Dillwyn visited Ellen hut sch brother Tom, who had a “paralytic chinsiae (Gott