Summary

Traditional farm buildings are under great pressure from usage change. Thus, many historic structures and traditional farm buildings are being lost because they are neglected. 

Very few traditional farm buildings are protected under any legislation, so there is no obligation to retain them and while many have been lost, others survive. 

The principal objective of this project is to ensure that traditional farm buildings and other related structures that contribute to the character of the Irish rural landscape, and are of significant heritage value, are conserved for agricultural use. Apart from providing advice and technical support, training events have been held every year to disseminate information on the project’s conservation ethos of reduce, reuse, recycle. 

Results

Since 2016, more than 430 traditional farm buildings have been returned to sustainable use on farms and 550 protected species nesting and/or roosting sites have been identified and protected. 

Every farmer supported through the project demonstrates the public benefits of the initiative. Events and project impacts have been widely disseminated in the media through local and national newspapers, local and national radio (including the RTE Radio 1 Countrywide programme – which has 260 000 listeners) to help raise awareness of and increase participation in the initiative.