Portaferry’s brand new Heritage Fest

13th August 2024

Organisations across Portaferry have come together under the banner of Portaferry Community Collective to launch a brand new festival celebrating the abundance of built, cultural and natural heritage in and around Portaferry.

The inaugural ‘Portaferry Heritage Fest’ will take place Friday 13 to Sunday 15 September and it is jam-packed with activities and events for all the family to enjoy, including many free events.

Friday starts with screenings of ‘The McCooeys’ at Portico arts and heritage centre, celebrating the cultural heritage of Portaferry’s famed Joseph Tomelty. His 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, spread your wings and join Professor Alastair Ruffle on top of Windmill Hill where he will be using live 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 Portico,‘Drones, Stones and Ancient Bones’ with archaeologists Liam McQullan and Lisa White explores the 5000 year old megalithic tomb at Millin Bay, just outside Portaferry. By using modern scientific research techniques we can get new clues about this puzzling monument,  where these ancestors came from, how they died and even what they may have looked like! You can visit the cairn afterwards, where the archaeologists will be on site.

Across the weekend maritime heritage abounds with 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 of course you can always take a trip on the oldest recorded ferry route in Ireland, crossing the Narrows for over 400 years.

Slimy or crispy? 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’s musical heritage, too, in concert at Portico: ‘Sean Donnelly’ is known as the ‘real folk voice of Northern Ireland’ and he’ll 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. Tour guide Seamus Dorrian is also spilling secrets in his guided tours, ‘Think You Know Portaferry?’.

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.

Local arts collective ‘The Loft Artists’ will be displaying their paintings, prints and weavings of the natural landscape at Portico, a beautiful piece of heritage it its own right with grade A listed architecture, fascinating local heritage displays and artefacts as well as a restored organ designed for everyone to ‘have a go’ on. Outside the Portaferry Men’s Shed will be demonstrating how to make bird boxes and Strangford Lough and Lecale Partnership and True Harvest Seeds will have stalls with information and activities on biodiversity.

Check out all that’s on offer and book your places at 
porticoards.com/portaferry-heritage-fest
Facebook: @portaferryheritagefest