The Burren Winterage Weekend is a great opportunity to highlight the importance of farming in the Burren, to give the general public an insight into the work that farmers do to help manage the heritage soul of Ireland.

This event is our key ‘window’ to the world to highlight this, but it needs your help to succeed. This is a community-led festival and this year we need more support to make the celebration bigger and better than ever.  

Local Community, what can you do?

As a start you should: attend the Winterage Weekend events, and when there, talk about the Burren and farming to visitors: promote the weekend – invite family and friends from elsewhere to the events, hang posters and distribute fliers in your local area, ensure the events are promoted in marts, schools and churches (let us know if you can do this and we will send you on the posters).

Even better would be to: organise an event on anything relating to farming, for example, a stone-wall building demo, a cattle herding demo, a display of traditional machinery. This could be done by one person or by a few neighbours or friends working together. Or host an open farm or a farm walk event on your land so visitors can see Burren farming in action: help host the annual cattle drove (parking, cattle and spectator management): ask your local business, co-op, shop, pub, school, church etc to sponsor/ co-organise/promote a local event: attend the Burren Winterage School (fee applies).

Local Schools, what can you do?

This is a great time of the year to get your students involved in a winterage project.  As part of this, you could get a local farmer in to talk to you about winterage: your students could do some displays about winterage. There's a Winterage Frame template which you could use here. You could invite all your family and community to view your displays on winterage​.

Local businesses what can you do?

Could you help organise a local event in your area that is relevant to winterage?

Could you support the Burrenbeo Trust or directly support an event in your area?

Perhaps there is something that you would like to give as a prize at an event?

Regional and nationwide businesses what can you do?

Could you support the Burren Winterage Weekened by sponsoring one of the events?

Could you support the 10 week heritage course in a local Burren schools (worth €1500)?

In order to carry out the event, the Burrenbeo Trust, landscape charity for the region, needs to raise funds for insurance, marketing, venues and other associated costs. The Burrenbeo Trust is a registered charity and events are run on a not for profit basis.

We need up to €10,000 to make this event happen. You can help but also get something in return!

Since it started the Burren Winterage Weekend has attracted thousands of people. Events were shown on the RTE 6 O’Clock news, it received a double-page spread in the Sunday Business Post and photographic articles appeared in The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, The Daily Mail and the Irish Examiner, as well as all the regional papers and radio stations. The coverage of the event illustrates what an important position pastoral farming has, not just for the local community, but for people nationwide.

This is a fantastic opportunity to profile your business both locally and nationally.

 If interested or to discuss further contact Burrenbeo on [email protected] or 091 638096.