It is amazing what you can discover about your local area from the snug safety of your home.
Sligo Heritage Office is delighted to offer a free online course delivered by The Irish Heritage School that will take you step-by-step through the available online sources and will allow you to paint a picture of the geological, archaeological, and historical events that happened close to where you live in County Sligo.
While the course will look at examples from throughout Ireland, it will focus on the geology, archaeology and history of County Sligo. As such the course is aimed toward Sligo people (who will be given preference for available course places) who are enthusiasts of natural and cultural heritage.
Siobhán Ryan, Heritage Officer with Sligo County Council said “We are delighted to be working with the Irish Heritage School to bring this course to everyone with an interest in the Heritage of Sligo.
“During the Covid 19 lock-downs we have all become much more aware of the beauty and value of our own local place, and this course taps into that interest.
“We hope it will equip people with the tools they need to research their locality and look at their own patch with new eyes. Sligo County Council is delighted to support the delivery of the online course, which is available to the public for free.”
The course will be delivered through five online tutorials every Tuesday and Thursday over two and a half weeks commencing Tuesday 22nd March 2022.
The course will begin by looking at the very bedrock under our feet, examining the geological processes and glacial events that shaped the landscape and formed the soils.
The course then focuses on the impacts of humans on that landscape over time, from pre-history to the last century.
The first workshop includes a summary of the course content and format. A list of resources/links will be sent to the participants so that they can study their own locality.
The online workshops will focus on a different aspect of geology, the landscape and archaeology of Sligo each week, from the formation of Ireland to the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland, as well as teaching a set of online research skills.
The course will also outline how these skills can be used to make your own submission to the ‘Know Your 5k’ initiative of the Heritage Council and National Museum of Ireland which invites everyone to share their discoveries and insights about the hidden heritage of their locality. Gathering these submissions for Sligo is a key outcome of the course.
Through this and other citizen scientist programmes, course participants can make a real contribution to the conservation of our heritage by recording what is in their local area, highlighting what the local community values and raising awareness of its importance.
The ‘Know your Locality’ course is FREE but booking is essential and will be on a first come, first served basis.
To book visit: www.iafs.ie Programmes/Know Your Locality/Sligo March-April 2022
Supported by the Heritage Office, Sligo County Council. An Action of the County Sligo Heritage Plan.
