exciting, magical, adventurous, inspiring ACTIVITY CALENDAR
Created with the help of Mourne Heritage Trust
Consider it as ‘activity prescriptions’ that gives you permission to go out and experience nature in a new way. When carrying out the activities, please do them to your own ability, consider if you should do them with at least one other, and observe the fragile balance of nature as outlined in Leave no Trace. Most of all enjoy connecting with nature.
Dolmens Climate Action Network is a growing group of citizens who are motivated to work together to inspire fair community actions to respond to Climate Change. Join us on our Facebook page at Dolmens Climate Action Network to leave the stories of your adventures. We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words JANUARY on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce
Walk, stop, close your eyes, When walking the Mournes see what heathers you can spot 1 breathe and listen for a while 8 using the MHT Heathland Guide
Look for magical frozen Join the Big Garden Birdwatch 2 webs in the hedgerows 9
Watch the winter birds feeding Look for the Wolf Moon on the 28th 3 in inner Dundrum Bay 10
Find the Giant Redwood with 19 trunks in the Annesley Garden 4 in Castlewellan Forest Park
Visit Tipperary Woods along the 5 Bryansford Road, Newcastle
Look at the winter colours 6 of sedges and trees
Find your nearest river and 7 listen to the sound of flowing water
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust The whin is out afore the short day’s turnin’; FEBRUARY oh, but the whin is brave! It sets a ring o’ fairy candles burnin’ Roun’ dour Winter’s grave.
Florence Wilson Whins
Feast of St. Brigid. Create a pond, even a 1 Look for five signs of Spring 8 small basin, in your garden.
Walk quietly near the Ivy Bridge in Tollymore Feed the birds 2 and look out for squirrels 9
Look out for Go for a walk somewhere new 3 snowdrops & hazel catkins 10
4 Plant a native tree
Find the roundest 5 pebble on the beach
Go for an early morning walk 6 and listen to your footsteps
Look at the dry stone walls, think 7 about the past, present and future
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust A hilltop stone tomb with the wind across the door. Peat swamps go by: people of the ice age. MARCH Endless fields and farms – the last two thousand years.
Gary Snyder Ice Mountains Constantly Walking
Look for bees collecting tree Look out for frog spawn 1 pollen from hazel, willow, or alder 8
On the Spring Equinox notice Walk to the summit of Slieve Croob 2 9 the time of sunrise and the sunset
Plant a shrub or Buy a wildflower guidebook, go for 3 flower for the pollinators 10 a walk and see what you can identify
Walk the coastal path from Bloody Bridge and watch 4 the seabirds on the shore
Look out for otters 5 swimming in Castlewellan Lake
6 Plant some seed potatoes
Admire the simple 7 beauty of the dandelion
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust We see him, lowslung, course the lazybeds APRIL from hedge to hedge, hunting on the run, quick legs at even pace, nose down, tail brushing the dew.
Gréagóir Ó Dúill Fox
Visit Murlough and do a Paint an egg and roll it down a hill 1 two minute beach clean 8
Count how many On the 22nd find your own way 2 dandelions are in flower 9 of honouring International Earth Day
What clouds are in the sky Enjoy the Super today, wispy (cirrus), heaped 3 (cumulus) or layered (stratus)? 10 Pink Moon on the 27th
Get up at 5.30am and go 4 outside for the dawn chorus
5 Follow part of the Newcastle way
Start sowing seeds in 6 the garden or pots
7 Try a new outdoor activity
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust Young May came peeping o’er the mount And dressed herself before the font. MAY The glow-worm snuffed his candle bright. The brooklet tumbled into light. The skylark sang into the blue. The baby corn sprang into view.
Francis Ledwidge May Morning
st On the 1 , celebrate Lie on the beach and the first day of summer and walk 1 barefoot on the grass 8 listen to the waves
Look at freshness of Have breakfast outside 2 9 new tree leaves
Go for a Bluebell walk in On the 28th, sow wildflower 3 Tollymore or Castlewellan 10 seeds with the Corn planting moon
4 Listen for Cuckoos at Murlough
Enjoy the Magnolias and Rhododendrons at the Annesley 5 Gardens, Castlewellan Forest Park
Smell the golden flowers 6 of a gorse bush
Watch and record the 7 birds in your garden
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust Light and wind are running JUNE over the headed grass as though the hill had melted and now flowed.
Wendell Berry June Wind
Look up at the night sky to Run up the sand 1 see Jupiter and Saturn 8 dunes at Murlough
On the 5th, volunteer to Honour the power of the Sun on collect litter in honour of UN World the Summer Solstice by enjoying 2 Environment day 9 the outside for at least eight hours
Visit a dolmen - any dolmen Listen for the Great Spotted 3 in our area … take your pick 10 Woodpecker in our forests
Climb the Mournes or a hill 4 on a midsummer evening
5 Hug a tree
6 Go for a picnic
7 Make Elderflower cordial
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust Sometimes it smells of summer even here, JULY when the wind is right and the rain not too heavy: rose-petals and lavender among the heathers …
Sabine Wichert Irish Summer
Walk from Murlough to How many types of slugs 1 Newcastle along the beach 8 can you spot on a rainy day?
Listen to the bees in your Learn the leaf and tree garden or nearby and find out shapes of six native trees: ash, 2 who keeps them locally 9 birch, hawthorn, hazel, oak, rowan
Lie on the grass Listen for Red Kites, 3 and look up at the sky 10 Buzzards and Raven calls
4 Join the Big Butterfly Count
Walk up Bunkers Hill 5 and enjoy the views
Look for Bog Cotton and 6 Sundews in the mountain bogs
Eat outside and watch 7 the swallows and swifts fly
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust And when white moths were on the wing, AUGUST And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout.
W. B. Yeats The Song of Wandering Aengus
Walk a while up alongside Go for a paddle or dip in the sea 1 8 the Bloody Bridge river
2 Pick grass seed heads for a vase 9 Collect seashells on the seashore
Find a weed that’s At dusk look for bats 3 10 flowering and learn its name
Create art on the beach 4 with pebbles and seaweed
11th-12th August 5 look for shooting stars
6 Explore the rock pools at Newcastle
Spot butterflies and 7 wildflowers at Murlough
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot SEPTEMBER Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Séamus Heaney Blackberry-Picking
Walk the Bloody Bridge coastal Walk in the hills and 1 path, at the car park look for sea life 8 look for bilberries
On the Autumn Equinox Pick and eat some blackberries 2 9 do some leaf and bark rubbings
Reflect on your growing success Look for the dew on spiders' webs 3 10 with the Harvest Moon on the 22nd
4 Pick hazelnuts to dry for squirrels
Watch and listen to the Ballykinlar seals from 5 Murlough’s shore
Do a beach clean 6 with friends or family
Volunteer with an 7 environmental organisation
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust Listen! the wind is rising, OCTOBER and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves
Humbert Wolfe Autumn Resignation
1 Feed the birds in your garden 8 Go on a Conker hunt
Go for a walk in Plant some bulbs for springtime 2 9 the forest in the dark
Plant a scented shrub in Feel and smell some seaweed 3 10 your garden to enjoy in winter
Kick some dried leaves 4 and look for fungi in the woods
5 Go on an organised foraging walk
Look out for Red Squirrels in Tollymore, 6 Castlewellan and Donard Forests
Enjoy local dessert 7 apples and savour the taste
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust How soon the sky is overcast; NOVEMBER How quick the wind becomes a blast. How quick the blue has turned to grey; How soon the night becomes the day.
W. Haughton Crowe Thoughts on a November Day
Put your hat and coat Visit Drumena cashel and 1 on and enjoy a walk in the wind 8 souterraine, Moneyscalp Road
Take a walk to Collect acorns Foley’s Bridge in Tollymore 2 and admire the autumn colours 9 and plant for new oak trees
Make suet balls to hang Look for Red Kites 3 10 in trees and see who comes
Watch a leaf falling 4 and being blown in the wind
5 Watch the sun rise
Walk on Bunkers Hill 6 and enjoy the views
7 Enjoy the reds of the hips and haws
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust The lap of water and the call of seabirds; in the salt-laden air are sunk deep in me. DECEMBER When I walk by the sea – where I am walking here and now, there and then – the ancient light of stars still beating down on me.
Janice Fitzpatrick Simmons Salt Caress
Treat yourself, or someone Splash through puddles 1 else, to a book about nature 8
Visit Slieve Croob at dusk On the Winter solstice climb Slieve-na-slat and watch 2 to see the Starling murmuration 9 the setting sun
Throw a pebble, and Look back on your year and 3 your worries, into the sea 10 recognise how far you have come
Climb to the Moorish 4 Tower in Castlewellan
5 Take a nature photo and share
6 Watch the seabirds at low tide
Drink a cup of soup on 7 a hill top and enjoy the view
Dolmens Climate Action Network (Castlewellan) with the support of Mourne Heritage Trust