Six block and slate structures were built on farmland – four by professional builders on behalf of farmers and two built by farmers (self-builds).

Plans were drawn up by an architect in liaison with VWT.

A quantity surveyor supervised construction.

Locations were assessed and passed by the statutory nature conservation body – National Parks and Wildlife Services – prior to construction.

Planning exemptions were obtained from the local planning authority prior to construction.

Forty-one farm visits were made by VWT during the 20 months of the project.

Information packs were given to each farmer containing a satellite image showing the location agreed for their bat house, the aspect of its roof necessary to ensure maximum solar gain and the area that would require fencing post-construction. 

Each farmer was provided with salvaged natural slate as the roofing material, a roll of 1F Bitumastic felt to lay under the slates and from which bats can safely hang, two Tilt Trays to install at the bat openings to prevent predators accessing the building, an external bat box for vesper bats (that crawl into roosts) and two external bee bricks to provide solitary pollinators with nest sites. 

Two Knowledge Transfer meetings were conducted with the farmers during the project. 

Project progress was recorded using video and drone footage, which was used to produce a short promotional video midway through the project and a longer educational video when the project was completed. These videos are available on the websites of both partners. 

A leaflet entitled ‘Actions for lesser horseshoe bats on farms’ was produced and launched in April 2023.

An oral presentation about the project was delivered by VWT at the 10th Irish Bat Conference in March 2023.

The bat houses will be monitored during 2023 using passive temperature loggers and detectors and results posted on partner websites. 

During 2022, VWT monitored bat activity on each farm and the lesser horseshoe bat was detected at three of the six locations.

The participating farmers set aside productive agriculture land for biodiversity. This demonstrates a change in mindset amongst farming enterprises in Ireland. The current CAP schemes are advocating this policy but this project secured farmers buy-in by approaching them at the outset of the project and clearly explaining the declining population of the lesser horseshoe bat, the critical role they could play in assisting its conservation and how actions by them on their farms would make a difference. 

During the initial meetings with the selected farmers, their preference was to undertake the building work themselves. When, however, they received the architect drawings and information provided by a quantity surveyor, four of the farmers elected to engage a professional builder. This approach had not been anticipated but resulted in these houses being built within a shorter timeframe than when farmers undertook the work. Due to all parties following the plans and with on-site support from the quantity surveyor, all the houses were built to a high standard.  

A contingency figure of 10% had been included in the original budget. This, however, was insufficient because of the rise in the cost of raw materials before construction had begun.The number of bat houses was therefore reduced from ten to six so that the project stayed within budget.