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The Douglas Spruce is one of those trees that the English Landlords loved to include on their estates. Growing very tall and beautifully fluffed out, it makes for a really eye catching tree! You’ll find them scattered everywhere from Powerscourt to Johnstown and Stormont. But it also features in loads of our own gardens and…

The worship of trees is nothing new in Ireland. The first visitors to this little island found a wild Rainforest teeming with ancient trees. These same trees provided everything they could possibly need and so it made sense that they would become honoured and worshipped in gratitude. The Bile Trees The Bile Trees of Ireland…

When anyone comes on a walking tour with me, one of the first plants I direct them to is the little cluster of plantain growing along the paths of Courtown Woods. Called Slánlus in Irish it roughly translates as goodbye pain or goodbye troubles. If you haven’t read the blog on this amazing little healing…

Making Cordials is a really fun thing to do and a first for many on their journey of free food foraging! The most well known has to be Elderflower Cordial, but using the same recipe listed below you can make many different cordials using the following flowering plants And many more! So for the purposes…

Meadowsweet is one of my favourite summer plants to gather, with its fluffy creamy coloured flowers it really stands out from the crowds and is a very easy one to identify in the hedgerows. Meadowsweet gets its name as it was used in the past to make Meadowsweet Mead, one of the oldest alcoholic drinks…

The humble plantain or Ribwort “weed” is a plant you’ll find everywhere, growing out of cracks on the side of the road, popping up on your lawn and scattered across gateways and carparks. Slánlús in Irish it roughly translates as goodbye pains or goodbye troubles and its no wonder when you look into its medicinal…

Celtic Tree Signs are a fun way to get to know trees a little better! Everyone has their own tree sign that corresponds with your birthdate Poet and writer Robert Graves is said to have “rediscovered” Celtic Astrology in the 70s. He published a book about it, prompting a revival of the old astrology system….

Back in the 1600s there was much toing and froing from here to our Celtic brethren in Wales. Actually it goes back far longer than that, between St Aidan coming from St Davids to build a Church in Ferns and of of course the bould and brave Strongbow marrying Aoife Mac Murragh. But todays post…

Wexford in Ireland has over 200KM of Coastline, dotted with tiny hidden bays, long golden stretches, and quirky little harbours each one with its own stories of pirates, smugglers, and shipwrecks. One area is known as the Graveyard of 1000 ships due to the amount of ships lost there over the centuries. So it may…

They say “visiting the past, is like visiting another country” and this could especially be said of Irish history in the 1700s. During this time Ireland was a wild and dangerous place to live, especially outside the protection of Dublin! But nowhere in the country was more dangerous than Wexford. Rebel forces hiding in the…