Practical Sustainability at Lackan Cottage Farm
Come and learn at Ireland’s only Permaculture LAND (learning and network demonstration) Centre. We welcome visitors, run courses, seminars and open days where people can come to see practical examples of permaculture and sustainability in action. This is a working family smallholding, as well as an award winning Green Tourism destination. Entirely off grid using solar and wind power, we have a wide range of practical examples of low impact and off grid projects to share with visitors.
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Permaculture by design
Permaculture has long been at the heart of what we do at Lackan – we first encountered permaculture at the Quarries Farm, through the teaching of Philip Allen, a veteran of permaculture in Ireland, and when we arrived at the farm here we endeavoured to observe our surroundings and come up with a plan that would embody permaculture principles.
Over the years that has steadily evolved, and we’ve experimented with all kinds of projects here. Both Claire and Steve have completed the PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate), having completed a 2 week course at Carraig Dulra, and are (very) slowly working on theirDiploma in Applied Permaculture Design. Many of the designs that form part of the material for the Diploma are based here at Lackan, and participating in the Diploma has been invaluable in refining designs here.
Over the years we’ve hosted many Introduction to Permaculture courses in conjunction with our friend Hannah at Earthcare Designs, and we’ll continue to offer a variety of permaculture training. Our own interpretation of permaculture is very practical in nature but like the site itself is always evolving.
We’re part of the core team organising All Ireland Permaculture, which for many years has consisted of the Permaculture Gatherings, and the European Permaculture Convergence in Wicklow. Part of our skillset has historically been web development, and Steve is responsible for the Permaculture.ie website.
LAND Centre pioneers
We’re really pleased to have become the first Permaculture LAND centre in Northern Ireland. There are currently LAND networks in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Scotland, England and Wales.
The LAND networks have been established to provide practical examples of land based permaculture design in a wide variety of places, climates and cultures. Centres are generally those that open to the public for visits, demonstrations and events.
Unlike in the rest of the UK, Permaculture in Northern Ireland is part of All Ireland Permaculture, which doesn’t yet have a formal central organisation, so Andy Goldring, CEO of Permaculture UK has very kindly worked with us to certify Lackan Cottage Farm as a LAND centre, with the aim that we will now be able to work within the All Ireland Permaculture network to establish our own network of LAND centres here in Ireland.
We’re still working out the details of how that will happen, but our experiences here at Lackan will be invaluable to others as they establish other LAND centres acrosss Ireland.
The broad aims of the LAND network are –
To create a network of permaculture practitioners working on land-based projects.
Centres will excel in their permaculture design skills, and will be better equipped to teach others the possibilities of permaculture design.
Centres will be better resourced to deliver courses and local presentations, and seen as a hub for permaculture in their local community.
Centres will be better prepared to provide volunteer opportunities for local people and itinerant learners.
Visiting groups will be aware of the opportunities to actively visit IreLAND Learners and Centres.
and the benefits to participants –
Connecting with other inspiring projects
Increased exposure for your project through Permaculture.ie
Potential training and support for aspiring LAND centres
Increased visibility and accessibility of your project to others for permaculture related courses and events
Receiving more visitors and volunteers at your project
Recognition for the work at your LAND centre
Our assessment was carried out by Hannah Mole of Earthcare Permaculture Design in Roscommon, and we’ll both be applying what we’ve learned about the process to benefit other centres as they are assessed.
As part of the process of building permaculture networks, the All Ireland Permaculture website – www.permaculture.ie has been redesigned, and people can now add their projects, whether land based or not, as well as events and courses. It is free to add listings, and we hope the site will build into a valuable resource.
The UK map – https://www.permaculture.org.uk/people-projects-places/land/map and the new Permaculture Ireland map of projects – https://permaculture.ie/map/
RENEWABLE ENERGY
100% of our power is generated on site using solar pv and wind
WOODLANDS
We manage woodlands for fuel and recreation and have planted over 1500 new trees.
ORGANIC FOOD
Our home grown food is organic, healthy, fresh and available on site.
EFFICIENT BUILDINGS
Heated by the sun; built using natural, local and ethical materials, and lovingly hand made.
Our story
Like many people, our desire to live off grid was a reaction to the issues of climate change and uncertainty. These now seem to be an inescapable fact of life in the 21st century. We decided to become more self reliant whilst working with other like minded families to establish a resilient community. As a result that stretches from our immediate neighbourhood right across the island of Ireland.
Lackan Cottage Farm has been a centre for practical sustainability. We were the first accredited LAND (Learning and Network Demonstration) centre on the island of Ireland, and we are pioneering Green Tourism by becoming the first Green Key business in the country, as recognition of our commitment to sustainability.
We came from ‘regular’ 9-5 jobs, typical levels of modern debt and exhaustion, and decided to give it up to live in a converted horsebox while volunteering on a friend’s farm. From there we found Lackan Cottage Farm and established our own smallholding using permaculture and organic principles.
Our vision
Our aim is to substantially meet our energy, food, water and waste requirements from our smallholding. Furthermore, to provide a healthy and ecologically sound environment in which visitors can learn from our experiences. We show how it is possible to live in a more sustainable manner without compromising their standard of living.
We offer our self catering cottage alongside open days, as well as offering an ‘off grid experience’ to those seeking to live more self reliantly. Furthermore, rising food and energy prices along with recent revelations about the complexity of the modern food chain mean that interest in home food production, and living ‘The Good Life’ are at an all time high.
We realise that for many people, taking this to the level that we have is not practical, however there are many aspects that they will be able to take away and adapt to fit into their lifestyles.
Latest News
The same but different
It's nearly ten years now since we landed here at Lackan and in some ways the world has changed very little, and in others we live in an utterly different universe to the one we inhabited back then. Ten years ago we were holed up in our truck in Bangor, building a...
Thoughts on heating systems
I get asked about heating a lot. What's best, the most cost effective, simplest, efficient. All that. So this is a collection of my thoughts based on all the various things we've tried (and we've tried quite a few). So far we have (or have had) - Range cooker with a...
Summer updates from Lackan
July already, how did that happen.Needless to say we've done a fair bit since my last post back in December, so I'm not even going to try and cover it all, as its mostly in a recent video where I did a quick walk round. As you can see, we've made some changes. The...