Home
About
Letterkenny
Volunteer
News
Contact us

(Page 4)

Home
Blog

12Mar

Church Lane

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Local News

Since June 2019, there was been a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Church Lane as funding was secured by Donegal County Council under the Historic Towns Initiative when seven properties on the street were selected for extensive repairs. Contractor John O’Doherty fixed the roofs on all of the buildings, some of which were at the point of collapse. The facade of the buildings was restored using traditional building skills and the fronts were painted with breathable paint. Traditional sash windows were installed along with traditional front doors. Once the scaffolding was removed the true extent of this amazing transformation was revealed.

Work begins inside number 9

The left side of the lane before work began

As well as the external works, there was also been extensive work done inside to a number of the buildings. We hope that it won’t too long before these buildings will be fully brought into use for either commercial or residential purposes. No. 4 Church Lane which was not one of the houses involved in the Historic Towns Initiative was recently renovated. The building is now occupied after lying vacant after a number of years.

The living room inside refurbished number 4.

It is not just the buildings that have seen improvement but the Cathedral Quarter has commissioned a number of murals to be erected in the area. In November 2019, a stained-glass mural was unveiled on a narrow strip of wall on Houston House. The mural was a collaboration between UV Arts and LYIT Fashion students from the Department of Design with funding under the Creative Ireland programme.

Launch of stained glass mural, with committee members, LYIT fashion students and UV Arts.

Last year during lockdown, the Cathedral Quarter quarter commissioned Ciaran Dunlevy to recreate the iconic photo from the Lawrence Collection as a mural on the Gable End of No. 2 Church Lane. This photo taken by Robert French at the turn of the 20th century showed the thatched cottages of the right hand side of the Church Lane with the newly opened St Eunans Cathedral sitting majestically at the top of the Lane. To raise the funds for the mural, we sold blocks of the wall at €100 and the names of the people who contributed are now on a plaque beside the wall with an explanation in both Irish and English of what the mural is about.

Artist Ciaran Dunlevy

The support of the Tidy Towns has been vital to the success of the Cathedral Quarter project and the sponsorship of the flowers every summer has made the area so attractive not just for visitors but locals aw well. A real special mention for Charlie Grant who has been a dynamic force in bringing the appearance of the flowers to the next level. While we had placed flower boxes on the window sills of the buildings, last summer we decided to plant flowers on the top of the wall on the field below the graveyard. With seeds sourced from Claude Monet’s garden in the Northern French town of Giverny, we planted some beautiful Nasturtiums on top of the wall adding more colour as you stroll up or down the Lane.

Charlie and Jim planting Nasturtiums

Flowers at number 2

We are also very grateful to the Transition years of Errigal College who have helped to clean up the area and plant some winter flowers as part of their Gaisce Award. Being an integral part of the Letterkenny Tidy Towns is a tremendous honour for the Cathedral Quarter committee and we are delighted that the ideals of the movement is now being passed onto the next Generation.

Errigal college TY students planting winter flowers

Donnan Harvey

Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter and Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Church Lane as it is today

Read more

Church Lane

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Local News

Since June 2019, there was been a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Church Lane as funding was secured by Donegal County Council under the Historic Towns Initiative when seven properties on the street were selected for extensive repairs. Contractor John O’Doherty fixed the roofs on all of the buildings, some of which were at the point of collapse. The facade of the buildings was restored using traditional building skills and the fronts were painted with breathable paint. Traditional sash windows were installed along with traditional front doors. Once the scaffolding was removed the true extent of this amazing transformation was revealed.

Work begins inside number 9

The left side of the lane before work began

As well as the external works, there was also been extensive work done inside to a number of the buildings. We hope that it won’t too long before these buildings will be fully brought into use for either commercial or residential purposes. No. 4 Church Lane which was not one of the houses involved in the Historic Towns Initiative was recently renovated. The building is now occupied after lying vacant after a number of years.

The living room inside refurbished number 4.

It is not just the buildings that have seen improvement but the Cathedral Quarter has commissioned a number of murals to be erected in the area. In November 2019, a stained-glass mural was unveiled on a narrow strip of wall on Houston House. The mural was a collaboration between UV Arts and LYIT Fashion students from the Department of Design with funding under the Creative Ireland programme.

Launch of stained glass mural, with committee members, LYIT fashion students and UV Arts.

Last year during lockdown, the Cathedral Quarter quarter commissioned Ciaran Dunlevy to recreate the iconic photo from the Lawrence Collection as a mural on the Gable End of No. 2 Church Lane. This photo taken by Robert French at the turn of the 20th century showed the thatched cottages of the right hand side of the Church Lane with the newly opened St Eunans Cathedral sitting majestically at the top of the Lane. To raise the funds for the mural, we sold blocks of the wall at €100 and the names of the people who contributed are now on a plaque beside the wall with an explanation in both Irish and English of what the mural is about.

Artist Ciaran Dunlevy

The support of the Tidy Towns has been vital to the success of the Cathedral Quarter project and the sponsorship of the flowers every summer has made the area so attractive not just for visitors but locals aw well. A real special mention for Charlie Grant who has been a dynamic force in bringing the appearance of the flowers to the next level. While we had placed flower boxes on the window sills of the buildings, last summer we decided to plant flowers on the top of the wall on the field below the graveyard. With seeds sourced from Claude Monet’s garden in the Northern French town of Giverny, we planted some beautiful Nasturtiums on top of the wall adding more colour as you stroll up or down the Lane.

Charlie and Jim planting Nasturtiums

Flowers at number 2

We are also very grateful to the Transition years of Errigal College who have helped to clean up the area and plant some winter flowers as part of their Gaisce Award. Being an integral part of the Letterkenny Tidy Towns is a tremendous honour for the Cathedral Quarter committee and we are delighted that the ideals of the movement is now being passed onto the next Generation.

Errigal college TY students planting winter flowers

Donnan Harvey

Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter and Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Church Lane as it is today

Read more

25Feb

Biodiversity

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Local News

The following article appeared in the Letterkenny Leader on September 3rd.

One of the focuses for Letterkenny Tidy Towns, and for the national Tidy Towns organisation, is biodiversity. The aim is to encourage pollinators by protecting native hedgerows, encouraging wild flowers to grow, and planting pollen-rich flowers. This is because a third of Ireland’s 99 native bee species are facing extinction, and the knock-on effect of that on our wildlife and plantlife could be devastating. Last year the Tidy Towns National Pollinator Award for Large Town went to Buncrana, so we’re in good company!

There are a number of public sites where we are focussing on biodiversity, but we can all do our bit to help out in our own gardens. Something as simple as letting a small patch of grass grow long, or going easy on the hedge cutting can make a big difference, without necessarily having to look too untidy. As committee member Charlie Grant likes to say ‘There’s no such things as weeds, just plants in the wrong place’. To promote this, we included a ‘Wildlife friendly’ category in our recent garden competition, also known as the May McClintock Memorial Award, kindly sponsored by An Taisce.

Around the town, there are numerous places where biodiversity is being encouraged. On our website, we have a Biodiversity Map, which we are continuously updating – see above. Sites include the Town Park and Ballyboe Park, both of which have small areas which have been set aside to encourage pollinators, along with Sentry Hill where a section of grass is being allowed to grow long.

Another site of interest is the Butterfly Garden beside the tourist office. I for one drove past it for years without even knowing it was there, but it’s a fascinating spot to call in on if you’re passing by. Diverse pollinator-friendly flowers have been planted there, and there is also an insect hotel. There’s certainly plenty of insect activity going on down there!

The butterfly garden

My personal favourite is Ballymacool Town Park. Above the play area, the Nature’s Valley garden has a great variety of pollinator-friendly plants, and up in the woods in the top corner there is a beautiful wildflower meadow, neatly showing that Biodiversity can be either planned or spontaneous. Just take your pick.

Ballymacool Woods

Read more

Biodiversity

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Local News

The following article appeared in the Letterkenny Leader on September 3rd.

One of the focuses for Letterkenny Tidy Towns, and for the national Tidy Towns organisation, is biodiversity. The aim is to encourage pollinators by protecting native hedgerows, encouraging wild flowers to grow, and planting pollen-rich flowers. This is because a third of Ireland’s 99 native bee species are facing extinction, and the knock-on effect of that on our wildlife and plantlife could be devastating. Last year the Tidy Towns National Pollinator Award for Large Town went to Buncrana, so we’re in good company!

There are a number of public sites where we are focussing on biodiversity, but we can all do our bit to help out in our own gardens. Something as simple as letting a small patch of grass grow long, or going easy on the hedge cutting can make a big difference, without necessarily having to look too untidy. As committee member Charlie Grant likes to say ‘There’s no such things as weeds, just plants in the wrong place’. To promote this, we included a ‘Wildlife friendly’ category in our recent garden competition, also known as the May McClintock Memorial Award, kindly sponsored by An Taisce.

Around the town, there are numerous places where biodiversity is being encouraged. On our website, we have a Biodiversity Map, which we are continuously updating – see above. Sites include the Town Park and Ballyboe Park, both of which have small areas which have been set aside to encourage pollinators, along with Sentry Hill where a section of grass is being allowed to grow long.

Another site of interest is the Butterfly Garden beside the tourist office. I for one drove past it for years without even knowing it was there, but it’s a fascinating spot to call in on if you’re passing by. Diverse pollinator-friendly flowers have been planted there, and there is also an insect hotel. There’s certainly plenty of insect activity going on down there!

The butterfly garden

My personal favourite is Ballymacool Town Park. Above the play area, the Nature’s Valley garden has a great variety of pollinator-friendly plants, and up in the woods in the top corner there is a beautiful wildflower meadow, neatly showing that Biodiversity can be either planned or spontaneous. Just take your pick.

Ballymacool Woods

Read more

23Oct

What is Tidy Times About?

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Local News, Tidy Town Events

The following article appeared in the ‘Tidy Times’ column of the Letterkenny Leader at the start of August.

Hello and welcome to the new regular feature, which I will be writing on behalf of Letterkenny Tidy Towns. Each month I’ll cover some of the things which the Tidy Towns volunteers do, and how you can help out.

This month I will try to answer the question “What exactly do Letterkenny Tidy Towns do?” You may be surprised at the breadth of our initiatives – it’s not just about litter – and I will go into more detail on some of these in future editions of the Letterkenny Leader.

The Letterkenny Tidy Towns team is a group of volunteers whose goal is to greatly improve our sense of community, quality of people’s lives and our local environment.

We believe environmental improvement is a vital part of economic generation. We work hard to make Letterkenny look great – a place where people want to live and visit. So how do we go about it?

Firstly, we represent Letterkenny in the national Tidy Towns Competition. This is not happening this year, but the efforts involved in preparing the town for the competition are all about improving the local environment, and will thus continue.

In a normal year, there would be regular Sunday litter picks, including the ‘adopt a road’ scheme. These are on hold for now, but people all over the town are taking it upon themselves to clean up their own areas, and we help to facilitate this by providing litter grabbers, High Vis jackets, gloves, bags and so on, as well as getting involved ourselves, of course. The Council, with help from Glenard Plant, do a great job of keeping the town clean but they can’t be everywhere, so every piece of litter lifted by a member of the public helps to keep our town beautiful.

{NOTE – since the article went to press, we did get the Sunday litter picks going again, and were delighted by the number of new volunteers who came along (a 7-fold increase of participants compared to this time last year! Thanks so much to all of you). The litter picks are now wound down for the winter and for the level 5 lockdown, however several of us will continue to do individual litter picks, and bags, gloves etc can be provided to anyone else who wishes to clean their local area.}

A fine turn out for a recent Sunday litter pick

The Tidy Towns Committee helps to co-ordinate the work done by the Community Employment Scheme, typically involving weeding, hedge trimming, planting flowerbeds and placing flower boxes.

The Tidy Towns committee is working to encourage biodiversity. See next month’s article for more on this!

The Tidy Towns committee liaises with residents associations, community groups such as Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter, local businesses and the council to highlight the work that needs to be done and to determine the best way to do it. A part of this is the annual Cleaner Community Campaign, where Tidy Towns works with residents associations to facilitate local clean-ups, and local environmental initiatives.

Flower boxes are placed around the town by Tidy Towns

As you will have gathered from the above, some of our ‘normal’ work has been put on hold due to the strange times we’re living in, but we are still very much involved in smaller scale projects, and in encouraging members of the public to get going with their own projects. As an added incentive, we are currently running a garden competition with three categories – small garden, large garden and wildlife encouraging garden. For more details, see our website or our Facebook page.

There are several other ongoing projects, such as cleaning up the Sentry Hill area and looking into improving the murals in Lower Main Street, along with informal litter picks being done by individuals.

Read more

What is Tidy Times About?

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Local News, Tidy Town Events

The following article appeared in the ‘Tidy Times’ column of the Letterkenny Leader at the start of August.

Hello and welcome to the new regular feature, which I will be writing on behalf of Letterkenny Tidy Towns. Each month I’ll cover some of the things which the Tidy Towns volunteers do, and how you can help out.

This month I will try to answer the question “What exactly do Letterkenny Tidy Towns do?” You may be surprised at the breadth of our initiatives – it’s not just about litter – and I will go into more detail on some of these in future editions of the Letterkenny Leader.

The Letterkenny Tidy Towns team is a group of volunteers whose goal is to greatly improve our sense of community, quality of people’s lives and our local environment.

We believe environmental improvement is a vital part of economic generation. We work hard to make Letterkenny look great – a place where people want to live and visit. So how do we go about it?

Firstly, we represent Letterkenny in the national Tidy Towns Competition. This is not happening this year, but the efforts involved in preparing the town for the competition are all about improving the local environment, and will thus continue.

In a normal year, there would be regular Sunday litter picks, including the ‘adopt a road’ scheme. These are on hold for now, but people all over the town are taking it upon themselves to clean up their own areas, and we help to facilitate this by providing litter grabbers, High Vis jackets, gloves, bags and so on, as well as getting involved ourselves, of course. The Council, with help from Glenard Plant, do a great job of keeping the town clean but they can’t be everywhere, so every piece of litter lifted by a member of the public helps to keep our town beautiful.

{NOTE – since the article went to press, we did get the Sunday litter picks going again, and were delighted by the number of new volunteers who came along (a 7-fold increase of participants compared to this time last year! Thanks so much to all of you). The litter picks are now wound down for the winter and for the level 5 lockdown, however several of us will continue to do individual litter picks, and bags, gloves etc can be provided to anyone else who wishes to clean their local area.}

A fine turn out for a recent Sunday litter pick

The Tidy Towns Committee helps to co-ordinate the work done by the Community Employment Scheme, typically involving weeding, hedge trimming, planting flowerbeds and placing flower boxes.

The Tidy Towns committee is working to encourage biodiversity. See next month’s article for more on this!

The Tidy Towns committee liaises with residents associations, community groups such as Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter, local businesses and the council to highlight the work that needs to be done and to determine the best way to do it. A part of this is the annual Cleaner Community Campaign, where Tidy Towns works with residents associations to facilitate local clean-ups, and local environmental initiatives.

Flower boxes are placed around the town by Tidy Towns

As you will have gathered from the above, some of our ‘normal’ work has been put on hold due to the strange times we’re living in, but we are still very much involved in smaller scale projects, and in encouraging members of the public to get going with their own projects. As an added incentive, we are currently running a garden competition with three categories – small garden, large garden and wildlife encouraging garden. For more details, see our website or our Facebook page.

There are several other ongoing projects, such as cleaning up the Sentry Hill area and looking into improving the murals in Lower Main Street, along with informal litter picks being done by individuals.

Read more

10Oct

Weekly Litter Picks

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Tidy Town Events

For the last few weeks, our Sunday litter picks have been back up and running. It’s difficult to predict what will happen in future as we go through the various levels of Covid 19 restrictions, but as long as we are able to do so, we will carry on meeting up at 10.30am at Market Square each week. The number of volunteers tends to range between 4 and 10. Neil, the coordinator, then designates areas for people to take care of, and typically it will be 2 people working a particular area, with 1 on each side of the road. So even in the strictest of lockdown conditions, we hope to be able to keep going, but we shall have to see what the future brings!

Neil organises the volunteers

But enough of this Covid talk, what do the Sunday volunteers get out of it? Annalisa joined us shortly after the Sunday picks restarted, and has become a regular, focusing mostly on Ballyraine and Kiltoy. “I first joined the Letterkenny Tidy Town’s Sunday Litter Pick about six weeks ago after I spotted one of their volunteers out one day and it made me think, what can I do to help? I enjoy walking about the town but it’s always disappointing at times to see so much litter.” Annalisa mentioned a certain energy drink which shall remain nameless, and how she wished it would give the drinkers the energy to find a bin. Couldn’t have put it better myself!

“So, for the hour of your time when you join the Sunday litter picks, you get a great feeling of accomplishment knowing you’re helping the environment and contributing to the community we are fortunate enough to be a part of. I would recommend anyone thinking about becoming a volunteer to just do it! Everyone is lovely, there’s no pressure, and if it’s one hour a year or one hour a week you’re able to give, every little bit helps.”

A typical scene which greets the volunteers. This lot was picked on a short stretch of Lisnennan Hill.

Neil, the coordinator, has been delighted with the growing attendance over the last few weeks, and has been busy planning areas to be covered. In short, there are more areas needing to be cleaned than we currently have volunteers, but we do the best we can with the people available to us, and in the longer term we hope to get estate residents to adopt their own neighbourhoods. Meantime, the areas being covered include Ballyraine, Kiltoy, Lisnennan, Mountain Top, Gortlee, Glencar, Old Town and of course the town centre. Most of these areas are places which the council’s contractors, Glenard Plant, can’t get to very often due to time/resource cconstraints. I hope you have noticed improvements in at least some of these areas, and if you’re looking at an area and thinking ‘hmm that could do with a bit of clean’, then please do get involved. All are welcome!

We also realise that there may be people who would very much like to get involved, but for whom Sunday morning just doesn’t work – maybe you have other commitments or maybe you’d just rather be relaxing on a Sunday morning! We totally understand, and several of our committee members are in total agreement with you. If that sounds like you, but you would still like to get involved, then we can offer help with bags, gloves, high vis jackets and litter grabbers. Either call in on Neil at the Market Square on a Sunday morning, get your stuff and be on your way, or you can get in touch with Gerard McCormick at Magees Pharmacy. Full details are on our website – https://www.letterkennytidytowns.com/volunteer, or message us on our Facebook page.

The above article appeared in the Letterkenny Leader on Oct 1st 2020.

Read more

Weekly Litter Picks

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Tidy Town Events

For the last few weeks, our Sunday litter picks have been back up and running. It’s difficult to predict what will happen in future as we go through the various levels of Covid 19 restrictions, but as long as we are able to do so, we will carry on meeting up at 10.30am at Market Square each week. The number of volunteers tends to range between 4 and 10. Neil, the coordinator, then designates areas for people to take care of, and typically it will be 2 people working a particular area, with 1 on each side of the road. So even in the strictest of lockdown conditions, we hope to be able to keep going, but we shall have to see what the future brings!

Neil organises the volunteers

But enough of this Covid talk, what do the Sunday volunteers get out of it? Annalisa joined us shortly after the Sunday picks restarted, and has become a regular, focusing mostly on Ballyraine and Kiltoy. “I first joined the Letterkenny Tidy Town’s Sunday Litter Pick about six weeks ago after I spotted one of their volunteers out one day and it made me think, what can I do to help? I enjoy walking about the town but it’s always disappointing at times to see so much litter.” Annalisa mentioned a certain energy drink which shall remain nameless, and how she wished it would give the drinkers the energy to find a bin. Couldn’t have put it better myself!

“So, for the hour of your time when you join the Sunday litter picks, you get a great feeling of accomplishment knowing you’re helping the environment and contributing to the community we are fortunate enough to be a part of. I would recommend anyone thinking about becoming a volunteer to just do it! Everyone is lovely, there’s no pressure, and if it’s one hour a year or one hour a week you’re able to give, every little bit helps.”

A typical scene which greets the volunteers. This lot was picked on a short stretch of Lisnennan Hill.

Neil, the coordinator, has been delighted with the growing attendance over the last few weeks, and has been busy planning areas to be covered. In short, there are more areas needing to be cleaned than we currently have volunteers, but we do the best we can with the people available to us, and in the longer term we hope to get estate residents to adopt their own neighbourhoods. Meantime, the areas being covered include Ballyraine, Kiltoy, Lisnennan, Mountain Top, Gortlee, Glencar, Old Town and of course the town centre. Most of these areas are places which the council’s contractors, Glenard Plant, can’t get to very often due to time/resource cconstraints. I hope you have noticed improvements in at least some of these areas, and if you’re looking at an area and thinking ‘hmm that could do with a bit of clean’, then please do get involved. All are welcome!

We also realise that there may be people who would very much like to get involved, but for whom Sunday morning just doesn’t work – maybe you have other commitments or maybe you’d just rather be relaxing on a Sunday morning! We totally understand, and several of our committee members are in total agreement with you. If that sounds like you, but you would still like to get involved, then we can offer help with bags, gloves, high vis jackets and litter grabbers. Either call in on Neil at the Market Square on a Sunday morning, get your stuff and be on your way, or you can get in touch with Gerard McCormick at Magees Pharmacy. Full details are on our website – https://www.letterkennytidytowns.com/volunteer, or message us on our Facebook page.

The above article appeared in the Letterkenny Leader on Oct 1st 2020.

Read more

20Sep

Garden Competition Winners

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Community Initiative, Photography, Tidy Town Events

Our 2020 Tidy Towns Garden Competition had a very high standard of entry, and it was a very tough decision to pick winners for the three categories. But decisions had to be made nonetheless, and I hope you will agree that all 3 were very worthy winners! Thanks again to all who entered, you are all doing the town, and yourselves, proud.

The May McClintock Wildlife Friendly Category

This went to Bronwyn of Foxhills. The judge was glowing in his praise of Bronwyn’s garden, pointing out how much thought had gone into the design, and into encouraging a variety of wildlife for all seasons.

The Sean Higgins Memorial Award for Large Garden

This goes to Anne and Charlie, for their beautifully kept garden.

The Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award for Small Garden.

The prize goes to Breege at Wolfe Tone Place. This garden attracted a lot of praise from Facebook followers and committee members and is a very worthy winner.

Read more

Garden Competition Winners

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Community Initiative, Photography, Tidy Town Events

Our 2020 Tidy Towns Garden Competition had a very high standard of entry, and it was a very tough decision to pick winners for the three categories. But decisions had to be made nonetheless, and I hope you will agree that all 3 were very worthy winners! Thanks again to all who entered, you are all doing the town, and yourselves, proud.

The May McClintock Wildlife Friendly Category

This went to Bronwyn of Foxhills. The judge was glowing in his praise of Bronwyn’s garden, pointing out how much thought had gone into the design, and into encouraging a variety of wildlife for all seasons.

The Sean Higgins Memorial Award for Large Garden

This goes to Anne and Charlie, for their beautifully kept garden.

The Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award for Small Garden.

The prize goes to Breege at Wolfe Tone Place. This garden attracted a lot of praise from Facebook followers and committee members and is a very worthy winner.

Read more

31Aug

Garden Competition Entries

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Community Initiative, Photography, Tidy Town Events

Here is a sample of the entries we’ve had in our garden competition. We’ve been overwhelmed with the quality of the entries, and it’s going to be really tough making a decision!

Large Garden – Sean Higgins Memorial Award

Wildlife Friendly Garden – May McClintock Memorial Award

Small Garden – Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award

Read more

Garden Competition Entries

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Community Initiative, Photography, Tidy Town Events

Here is a sample of the entries we’ve had in our garden competition. We’ve been overwhelmed with the quality of the entries, and it’s going to be really tough making a decision!

Large Garden – Sean Higgins Memorial Award

Wildlife Friendly Garden – May McClintock Memorial Award

Small Garden – Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award

Read more

18Jul

Garden Competition – Best Large, Small and Wildlife Friendly Categories

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Community Initiative, Local News, Photography

We at Letterkenny Tidy Towns are running a garden competition from 20th of July to 31st August with three categories.

Because the Cleaner Community Campaign had to be cancelled this year due to Covid 19 restrictions Letterkenny Tidy Towns are delighted to run a garden competition for the Best Large Garden, Best Small Garden and Best Wildlife Friendly Garden categories. Each category is dedicated to previous Tidy Town members. See below for details of the categories.

The competition will run from 20th July to 31st of August where the entries will be judged and each category winner will receive a trophy and an Alcorns Gift Voucher. Please note that we can only accept entries from Letterkenny and the surrounding townlands.

If you would like to showcase your garden this summer and be in with a chance of winning one of these great prizes, please send a maximum of 5 photos per garden category via email including your name and contact number to lktidy@gmail.com or via post to
The Secretary,
Letterkenny Tidy Towns,
Magees Pharmacy,
Letterkenny
Co Donegal.

Closing date for entries is August 31st.

The Large Garden competition is known as the Sean Higgins Memorial Award. Adjudication will cover planting, colour including shrubs, grassy areas and flower borders encouraging wild life.

Your garden doesn’t need to be as large or as elaborate as this one at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam! It just needs to be an average or larger sized Letterkenny garden to qualify.

The Small Garden competition is known as the Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award. Adjudication will cover planting, colour including shrubs, grassy areas, and flower borders encouraging wild life.

The Wildlife-friendly Garden competition is known as the May McClintock Memorial Award, sponsored by An Taisce. For examples of what we might be looking for in this category, see the biodiversity section of our website.

This category is all about encouraging natural growth to help out the pollinators and give wildlife a home.

Read more

Garden Competition – Best Large, Small and Wildlife Friendly Categories

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Biodiversity, Community Initiative, Local News, Photography

We at Letterkenny Tidy Towns are running a garden competition from 20th of July to 31st August with three categories.

Because the Cleaner Community Campaign had to be cancelled this year due to Covid 19 restrictions Letterkenny Tidy Towns are delighted to run a garden competition for the Best Large Garden, Best Small Garden and Best Wildlife Friendly Garden categories. Each category is dedicated to previous Tidy Town members. See below for details of the categories.

The competition will run from 20th July to 31st of August where the entries will be judged and each category winner will receive a trophy and an Alcorns Gift Voucher. Please note that we can only accept entries from Letterkenny and the surrounding townlands.

If you would like to showcase your garden this summer and be in with a chance of winning one of these great prizes, please send a maximum of 5 photos per garden category via email including your name and contact number to lktidy@gmail.com or via post to
The Secretary,
Letterkenny Tidy Towns,
Magees Pharmacy,
Letterkenny
Co Donegal.

Closing date for entries is August 31st.

The Large Garden competition is known as the Sean Higgins Memorial Award. Adjudication will cover planting, colour including shrubs, grassy areas and flower borders encouraging wild life.

Your garden doesn’t need to be as large or as elaborate as this one at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam! It just needs to be an average or larger sized Letterkenny garden to qualify.

The Small Garden competition is known as the Charles and Rose Devlin Memorial Award. Adjudication will cover planting, colour including shrubs, grassy areas, and flower borders encouraging wild life.

The Wildlife-friendly Garden competition is known as the May McClintock Memorial Award, sponsored by An Taisce. For examples of what we might be looking for in this category, see the biodiversity section of our website.

This category is all about encouraging natural growth to help out the pollinators and give wildlife a home.

Read more

11Jul

Keep It Local, Keep It Beautiful Competition Winners – Best Clean Up Category

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Photography

We asked members of the public to send us photos of an area they had helped to keep beautiful.

It was a very close-run thing, but we picked Lewis as the winner of this category, for his efforts with his daughter to clean up a stretch of beach at Crohy Head near Dungloe. The reason we picked this particular photograph was because it shows a young volunteer getting stuck in to what is clearly a very demanding task.

Lewis’ other pictures show a job well done.

Congratulations and well done to the other entrants.

Elaine did a clean up of a beach on Arranmore, removing 15 bags of rubbish and filling half a trailer. She believes some of that litter had been there for years, particularly the plastic, and now brings down a bag every time she visits so that it never gets that bad again.

Debdeep regularly walks through LYIT campus, and will often pick up any cans, bottles and cups that have been discarded, as ‘a gesture of respect that I can give back to mother nature, my university, and maybe to the incredible city of Letterkenny’.

Aoife and her friend regularly pick up litter on their walking route in the woodlands between Gortnacorrib and Kirkstown, clearing up discarded takeaway wrappers, drink cans and whatever else people have discarded.

Muckish from Kirkstown

Karen spent two hours cleaning up her neighbourhood, then went for a well deserved swim.

Read more

Keep It Local, Keep It Beautiful Competition Winners – Best Clean Up Category

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Community Initiative, Photography

We asked members of the public to send us photos of an area they had helped to keep beautiful.

It was a very close-run thing, but we picked Lewis as the winner of this category, for his efforts with his daughter to clean up a stretch of beach at Crohy Head near Dungloe. The reason we picked this particular photograph was because it shows a young volunteer getting stuck in to what is clearly a very demanding task.

Lewis’ other pictures show a job well done.

Congratulations and well done to the other entrants.

Elaine did a clean up of a beach on Arranmore, removing 15 bags of rubbish and filling half a trailer. She believes some of that litter had been there for years, particularly the plastic, and now brings down a bag every time she visits so that it never gets that bad again.

Debdeep regularly walks through LYIT campus, and will often pick up any cans, bottles and cups that have been discarded, as ‘a gesture of respect that I can give back to mother nature, my university, and maybe to the incredible city of Letterkenny’.

Aoife and her friend regularly pick up litter on their walking route in the woodlands between Gortnacorrib and Kirkstown, clearing up discarded takeaway wrappers, drink cans and whatever else people have discarded.

Muckish from Kirkstown

Karen spent two hours cleaning up her neighbourhood, then went for a well deserved swim.

Read more

11Jul

Keep It Local, Keep It Beautiful competition – Best photo showcasing local beauty

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Photography

We asked members of the public to send us their best photograph showcasing local beauty. We had 140 entries, and it was very difficult to narrow it down to an overall winner. So much so that some truly great photos had to be ruled out, so well done to all who entered!

We picked this photo titled ‘Stop and smell the leaves’ by Yvonne O’Brien as the overall winner. IT was the expression on the cow which won us over – totally living for the moment.

Stop and smell the leaves

The runner up was this fantastic shot of St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny by Peter Blake.

Cathedral

For the under 16s, we have joint winners with these beautiful shots.

Gartan

Illistrin

The following are a selection of some of the other photos we were most impressed by. Well done to all.

Fanad

Letterkenny Dusk

Fintown

Gartan

Main St Flower Box

Hoverfly

Female Blackbird

View from Gortlee

Silence of the Lambs

Stella at Dunfanaghy Beach

Beauty from my local area

Derry before lockdown

Illistrin Flower

Town Park Flower

Portsalon

Stranorlar

Sheep contemplating

Barnesmore

The Lone Piper

Main Street

My daughter in Town Park

Fanad Head

View of Letterkenny taken by drone

The cathedral, using a mix of monochrome and colour.

From My Window

Town Park

Letterkenny Sunset

Pollinator

Face Off

Crab

Town Park

Bun Beag Sunset

Kilmacrennan

Read more

Keep It Local, Keep It Beautiful competition – Best photo showcasing local beauty

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Photography

We asked members of the public to send us their best photograph showcasing local beauty. We had 140 entries, and it was very difficult to narrow it down to an overall winner. So much so that some truly great photos had to be ruled out, so well done to all who entered!

We picked this photo titled ‘Stop and smell the leaves’ by Yvonne O’Brien as the overall winner. IT was the expression on the cow which won us over – totally living for the moment.

Stop and smell the leaves

The runner up was this fantastic shot of St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny by Peter Blake.

Cathedral

For the under 16s, we have joint winners with these beautiful shots.

Gartan

Illistrin

The following are a selection of some of the other photos we were most impressed by. Well done to all.

Fanad

Letterkenny Dusk

Fintown

Gartan

Main St Flower Box

Hoverfly

Female Blackbird

View from Gortlee

Silence of the Lambs

Stella at Dunfanaghy Beach

Beauty from my local area

Derry before lockdown

Illistrin Flower

Town Park Flower

Portsalon

Stranorlar

Sheep contemplating

Barnesmore

The Lone Piper

Main Street

My daughter in Town Park

Fanad Head

View of Letterkenny taken by drone

The cathedral, using a mix of monochrome and colour.

From My Window

Town Park

Letterkenny Sunset

Pollinator

Face Off

Crab

Town Park

Bun Beag Sunset

Kilmacrennan

Read more

11Jun

Win a €100 ShopLK voucher! Keep it local. Keep it beautiful. Entries now CLOSED.

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Photography, Tidy Town Events

Keep it local. Keep it beautiful!

How to win a 100 euro ShopLK voucher.

We are running a campaign called ‘Keep it local. Keep it beautiful’, in which we encourage people to pick up a few items of litter while out enjoying your local area. Whether you pick up a couple of cans or do a full scale neighbourhood litter pick, it all makes a big difference. Just be sure to keep to social distancing guidelines (see below for further details).

As an added incentive, we are offering two 100 EURO ShopLK vouchers (sponsored by Magees Pharmacy).

The first category is ‘Best Clean Up’, which will include photographs of areas which have been improved thanks to your litter picking efforts. If you can include ‘Before’ and ‘After’ photos, that would be ideal, but don’t worry if you don’t have a ‘Before’ picture, just tell us about your clean up and you’ll be entered in this category. See below for an example, surely you can do better than this!

The second category is for the photo which best showcases the beauty of your local area. Could be a view, could be animals (domestic, farm or wildlife), could be the people you love, could be a building or a piece of outdoor artwork – the choice is yours!

Please note that if you already entered before the introduction of separate categories, there is no need to enter again, as your photos are already entered in the appropriate category.

Once you have taken your photo(s), just post it on our Facebook page or email to lktidy@gmail.com and include a short description of the photo(s), your name and contact phone number in the email. If you prefer to post your photo(s) then please send to Gerard McCormick, Magees Pharmacy, 27 Upper Main Street, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, F92 E30F also providing a short description of each photo, your name and contact phone number. The competition closes at 12 midnight on July 5th.

Keeping your area beautiful!

If you would like to make a contribution to keeping your area beautiful, you can get grabbers, bags and gloves by contacting Gerard or Eileen in Magees Pharmacy on (074) 9121409. Or you can just pick up a few items as you spot them and place them in your own bin. Please be sure to follow the government guidelines below.

Government Guidelines

As of phase 2 of the Government’s roadmap to easing the COVID-19 restrictions, the official advice from the National Spring Clean campaign is as follows:-

• Only small groups to take part (up to 15 people, provided all activity is outdoors)
• Strict 2m social distance maintained
• Stay within your allowable distance
• Hand sanitising essential before and after the clean-up
• Use your own gloves, and don’t share your litter picker if you’re using one
• Make sure gloves/ litter pickers are clean before/ after clean up
• Do not collect any discarded PPE or tissue paper

Read more

Win a €100 ShopLK voucher! Keep it local. Keep it beautiful. Entries now CLOSED.

Post by Letterkenny Tidy Towns

Photography, Tidy Town Events

Keep it local. Keep it beautiful!

How to win a 100 euro ShopLK voucher.

We are running a campaign called ‘Keep it local. Keep it beautiful’, in which we encourage people to pick up a few items of litter while out enjoying your local area. Whether you pick up a couple of cans or do a full scale neighbourhood litter pick, it all makes a big difference. Just be sure to keep to social distancing guidelines (see below for further details).

As an added incentive, we are offering two 100 EURO ShopLK vouchers (sponsored by Magees Pharmacy).

The first category is ‘Best Clean Up’, which will include photographs of areas which have been improved thanks to your litter picking efforts. If you can include ‘Before’ and ‘After’ photos, that would be ideal, but don’t worry if you don’t have a ‘Before’ picture, just tell us about your clean up and you’ll be entered in this category. See below for an example, surely you can do better than this!

The second category is for the photo which best showcases the beauty of your local area. Could be a view, could be animals (domestic, farm or wildlife), could be the people you love, could be a building or a piece of outdoor artwork – the choice is yours!

Please note that if you already entered before the introduction of separate categories, there is no need to enter again, as your photos are already entered in the appropriate category.

Once you have taken your photo(s), just post it on our Facebook page or email to lktidy@gmail.com and include a short description of the photo(s), your name and contact phone number in the email. If you prefer to post your photo(s) then please send to Gerard McCormick, Magees Pharmacy, 27 Upper Main Street, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, F92 E30F also providing a short description of each photo, your name and contact phone number. The competition closes at 12 midnight on July 5th.

Keeping your area beautiful!

If you would like to make a contribution to keeping your area beautiful, you can get grabbers, bags and gloves by contacting Gerard or Eileen in Magees Pharmacy on (074) 9121409. Or you can just pick up a few items as you spot them and place them in your own bin. Please be sure to follow the government guidelines below.

Government Guidelines

As of phase 2 of the Government’s roadmap to easing the COVID-19 restrictions, the official advice from the National Spring Clean campaign is as follows:-

• Only small groups to take part (up to 15 people, provided all activity is outdoors)
• Strict 2m social distance maintained
• Stay within your allowable distance
• Hand sanitising essential before and after the clean-up
• Use your own gloves, and don’t share your litter picker if you’re using one
• Make sure gloves/ litter pickers are clean before/ after clean up
• Do not collect any discarded PPE or tissue paper

Read more

Posts pagination

< 1 … 3 4 5 >

Categories

Biodiversity
Community Initiative
Local News
National News
Photography
Tidy Town Events
Tips
Uncategorized

Tags

Awards Biodiversity Community Events History

Newsletter

© 2025. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED