Excitement building for Portaferry Heritage Fest

Excitement building for Portaferry Heritage Fest

21 August 2024

ORGANISATIONS across Portaferry have united under one banner to launch a new festival.

The newly formed Portaferry Community Collective is excited to welcome visitors to the inaugural Portaferry Heritage Fest taking place over the weekend of September 13-15.

An action-packed programme includes activities and events for all the family to enjoy, that celebrate the abundance of culture and natural heritage in and around Portaferry.

Friday starts with screenings of ‘The McCooeys’ at Portico Arts and Heritage Centre, which celebrates Portaferry’s famed Joseph Tomelty.

Tomelty’s granddaughter Hannah, will be in conversation afterwards to discuss his legacy and then local historian, Allison Murphy, will lead a walk and talk special tour of remembrance, from where Joseph lived to where he now rests.

On Saturday morning, visitors will be able to spread their wings, and join professor Alastair Ruffle on top of Windmill Hill where he will be using lived video to present a bird’s eye view of the formation of Strangford Lough – showing how the ice ages created this area of outstanding natural beauty.

Back at the Portico, archeologists Liam McQuallan and Lisa White will explore the 5,000 year-old megalithic tomb at Milan Bay, just outside Portaferry, during the ‘Drones, Stones and Ancient Bones’ event. 

By using modern scientific research techniques, participants can discover new clues about the puzzling monument, where these ancestors came from, how they died and even what they may have looked like.

Across the weekend, maritime heritage abounds the boat tours on offer plus free coastal rowing sessions for anyone over the age of 12 to have a go at rowing in the locally-made skiffs.

The RNLI station will be open and exhibitions from Portaferry and Strangford Trust and Upper Ards Historical Society will tell the tales of ‘Shipwrecks & Saviours on the Lough’ and ‘The Men that made Portaferry’.

The Recreation Hub will showcase its cultural heritage too and visitors can also take a trip on the oldest recorded ferry route in Ireland, crossing the Narrows for over 400 years.

The festival will give visitors the opportunity to find out everything there is to know about the historic, futuristic and creative uses of seaweed at Queen’s Marine Laboratory on Saturday 

afternoon or have a go at finding it, cooking it and eating it at Kearney on Sunday afternoon with ‘Wild About Foraging’.

There will also be a music concert at the Portico. Sean Donnelly, who is known as the real folk voice of Northern Ireland, will be telling stories through song on Friday.

Spring Break will be rocking up to deliver 1980s musical heritage on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon sees a stomping celebration of Irish traditional music with ‘The Kilkennys’. 

Lots of Portaferry’s heritage buildings will be open including the 16th century castle, complete with living history performers, courtesy of the Historic Environment Division, and free guided tours at the 17th century Templecranny from Ards and North Down Council’s heritage officer, Moira O’Rourke.

On Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 2pm, Portaferry Regeneration’s ‘Artisan Market’ will be open in the restored Square, with demonstrations of heritage crafts like soda bread making and weaving as well as an enticing array of local produce to whet your appetite.

More information about what’s on offer and how to book places can be found at porticoards.com/portaferry-heritage-fest.