Our last excursion of the year, on Saturday 14 December, was a very happy well-attended event, despite some understandable anxieties about being outside in midwinter weather. As it happened, we were lucky to have consistent bright sunshine through the day, with only one very brief shower.

We lost some of our original bookings because of a visit by Santa to Mosney Direct Provision Centre, and others due to illness. Nevertheless, 32 asylum seekers and refugees, many of them resident in Mosney, came on the trip with Irish volunteers, led by Paddy Woodworth and Muhammad Achour. 

We visited the Hide Sculpture Project and the adjacent Rogerstown Park, Ardgillan Castle and Sonairte National Ecology Centre. This is the second time we have added a heritage element to our original concept of ‘Sanctuary in Nature’, and again the combination worked very well, according to the responses from our guests.

Fingal County Council kindly provided tea, coffee and biscuits at the Hide Sculpture, where public art officer Caroline Cowley and artist Garrett Phelan introduced them to the artwork, while Frank Prendergast of Fingal BirdWatch Ireland talked about the bird life in Rogerstown Estuary, which was teeming with geese, duck and wading birds like curlew. We had seven children on the trip, who were able to draw in chalk on the walls of the hide, and take pictures of their drawings.

While half the group was in the hide, the other half visited the new Rogerstown Park, built on top of the Baleally landfill dump. The park is still being created, with a lot of tree planting just beginning, but the view from the top, back of the estuary and out to the Dublin coastline, is wonderful, and we really appreciated help from Fingal County Council in giving us access. What a wonderful new facility!

At Ardgillan House, we were welcomed by the Castle manager, Tom Reilly, and had the privilege of a special tour by Aidan Herron, co-author of Ardgillan Castle Revealed. Our guests were fascinated and entertained by his witty account of the history of the building, and the social relationships between the owners and employees, as well as his introduction to some of the many historic artifacts the castle displays.

On this occasion the first language of our guests was Arabic, and we are grateful to Muhammad Achour, Najwa Achour, Tarek Shrayyef and Mohammed Taj-eldin for their help with translations. 

Meanwhile, the kids had a great time at an art workshop given by Muhammad in the lovely basement hall of the castle supervised by one of their parents. They listened to stories, played and drew fish and flowers, and also took photos of each other in the medieval dress costumes supplied by the Castle.

The group moved to Sonairte National Ecology Centre, which has kindly hosted us several times. A delicious lunch was organised by Hanna Phelan, with food from Umi Falafel Restaurant. Afterwards, many of the Syrians gave us a spontaneous and exuberant display of some traditional Syrian dances in Sonairte courtyard. Finally, some of us enjoyed a walk through the heritage orchard and down to the woodland walk alongside the estuary, where we saw some of the same bird species we had seen at Rogerstown. 

Once again, Pat Carroll of Gerry Carroll Coach Hire, Dundalk, was a most patient, good humoured and professional driver. Our thanks to him, and to all the individuals and institutions mentioned above for helping to make this day so special and so successful.

The feedback from our guests in summary: They were very happy, though they had been afraid of the cold weather, but the organisation of indoor and outdoor combination was superb, they loved the activities which fit all ages. Food was amazing, especially the way it was served. The mixture of art, nature and heritage as well as music was great. 

This is our third such outing this year, which has included guests from Syria, Mongolia, Albania, Zimbabwe, and China. A team of volunteers assists on each trip. We hope to do four excursions next year, and also to assist people in other areas to launch similar Sanctuary in Nature and Heritage projects.

Paddy Woodworth and Muhammad Achour, organisers.

Trish Long Tian Yu Kate Kavanagh Nicola Winters Sonairte Ecology Centre Laytown Donika Gega Tusha Zoe Devlin Victoria White Michelle Woodworth Simon Woodworth Eilis Cullen Enkhbolor Choijamts

Celia Willoughby BirdWatch Ireland Fingal County Council Ardgillan Castle & Demesne Tarek Shrayyef Najwa Achour Mohammed Taj-Eldin THEHIDEPROJECT