Inspiring Mayo farmer receives prestigious honour

A Mayo farmer who helped recruit over 150 other farmers to take part in the Wild Atlantic Nature Project is this month's Farming for Nature Ambassador of the month.

Colum Ginnelly farms 400-acres spread across islands, lowland and commonage on the Nephin Beg Mountain range, near Mulranny, Co Mayo.

He rears mountain sheep and has a small commercial flock and explained that participation in the Wild Atlantic Nature project "was the best thing that ever came here, as we know now what’s going on under our feet, the farmers around here look at their land completely differently now that it’s under a scoring system."

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The scheme ultimately resulted in payments of more than €1m to farmers in the local area. Colum played a key role in recruitment of elderly friends and neighbours, who may not otherwise have joined the programme.

This social solidarity is engrained in Colum and his family, who were also instrumental in leveraging local landowner support for the development of the hugely successful Great Western Greenway, which runs from Westport to Achill.

He also runs a private-hire bus service part-time and has used knowledge learned from the scheme to add value to his business.

He has taken many groups of visitors, including farmers, policymakers and academics, to visit his farm and other restoration demonstration sites in the locality.

His tours impart his knowledge of the local area, as well as sharing his experiences as a farmer. Indeed, as well as communicating the rich cultural history, Colum enthusiastically shares his knowledge of peatland ecology, flora and
fauna whilst taking groups of tourists from the US, Europe and elsewhere on trips to Achill, Connemara and the surrounding region.

He welcomes any scheme that helps farmers in the area farm for nature saying that farmers "are the custodians of the land, we look after it."

Most recently, he has signed up for another Wild Atlantic Nature plan to fence off 30 acres of overgrazed land on the mountain to see if it can recover.

A short film recorded on Colum's farm can be viewed on the Farming for Nature YouTube channel HERE.

Colum will be taking part in an online 'Ask the Farmer' Q&A on Tuesday, March 18 at 8pm where he will be sharing his experiences of coming around to nature friendly farming. Register HERE.