St Brigid’s pupils have ‘Bog Day Out’ at An Creagán

CURIOUS creepy crawlies, interesting insects and breathtaking boglands greeted pupils of St Brigid’s PS, Mountfield, during their special school trip to An Creagán Bog Nature Reserve recently.

The Primary Three and Four pupils and their teachers were the lucky winners of the trip to the centre, when they took part in An Creagán’s competition asking entrants to ‘guess the depth of the peat on An Creagán Bog’.

Their teacher, Miss Garry, submitted an entry for the class with guesses from all the children, and clever class member, Annie Mullin’s guess was closest, thus winning them the trip.

An Creagán’s new peatland officer, Micheál Scullion, welcomed the children in the centre’s education suite, and gave a presentation on peatland with lots of information and fun facts for the inquisitive young minds.

The children were then introduced to bog specialist plants, including the insect-eating sundew, and were told all about the climate benefits, biodiversity and ecosystem services of peatland.

The children then made their way to the nature reserve, where they spent time pond-dipping for insects, and completed a scavenger hunt on the beautiful 1km stretch of boardwalk on An Creagán Bog, filling a wonderful morning immersed in nature.

The group were later treated to lunch in the ‘White Hare’ restaurant at An Creagán as part of their prize, before boarding the bus back to school.

Each child took home an oak sapling, gifted to them by Padraig Donovan from his native tree nursery on the An Creagán site.

After being told of the importance of native trees in our landscape, the children were tasked with planting their saplings in the right place at their homes.

Book An Creagán this International Bog Day

An Creagán have recently formed a partnership with Ulster Wildlife to restore peatland throughout the Sperrins, and will be offering educational and informative visits to schools, community groups and the wider public, beginning with an event on ‘International Bog Day’ (July 28).

More details on the upcoming events will be posted on An Creagán’s Facebook and Instragram, and An Creagán peatland officer pages at Peatland_Officer_AnCreagan.

For more information on this story or peatland restoration, please contact Peatland Officer Micheál Scullion at email: biodiversity@ancreagan.com or by mobile 077 540 81877.