Friday 23rd of September is #CultureNight and we look forward to celebrating it at the #BallycroyVisitorCentre in #WildNephinNationalPark An entertaining evening with traditional music by local musicians and a chance to try some delicious boxty. Sean Lysaght will be launching his book ‘New Leaf’ and we’ll finish off the evening appreciating our wonderfully natural dark
Culture Night 23rd September 2022 Read More »
The Mayo Dark Sky Festival is back with a bang! In 2021, covid restrictions meant that the festival could not go ahead as planned, so we are really looking forward to welcoming people back to Newport, Mulranny and Ballycroy from 4 – 6 November, for a feast of events celebrating Mayo’s dark unpolluted skies. This year
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Newport is considered the gateway town to Mayo Dark Sky Park and has been a community host town to Mayo Dark Sky Festival since its inception. The town is becoming known as a dark sky destination, attracting a growing number of international visitors in winter months, boosting the local tourism economy during the off-season. However, the growth of artificial
Newport Lighting Project – Phased Implementation Read More »
Guided Stargazing – a new activity for Nature Parks and Resorts ONLINE Event – 22nd September at 7pm (registration below). We are delighted to welcome Etta Dannemann to our series of Women in Dark Skies talks. In this talk, Etta Dannemann will talk about Guided Stargazing as a new activity for dark sky areas.
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Check out our feature in Yvonne Gordon’s article on the best stargazing spots in Ireland – see link below: https://www.afar.com/magazine/where-to-stargaze-in-ireland-and-northern-ireland
Shhh: Ireland Has Some of the Best Stargazing in Europe Read More »
We are delighted to celebrate Heritage Week 2022 with a number of events of a dark sky theme, both in person and online and hope you can join us. As the darker evenings are just around the corner, Heritage Week is the perfect opportunity to start thinking about looking up into our lovely dark skies
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Our local community group, the Friends of Mayo Dark Skies – was featured in the Sunday Independent Magazine recently, to feature the work on the Newport Lighting Project (funded by the Heritage Council). This article also included important viewpoints from around Ireland and from Dark Sky Ireland on the issues surrounding light pollution. Independent Article
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Press release 23 June 2022 The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are delighted to announce the official launch of ‘Under Darkening Skies’ a public art commission by the visual artist Susan Mannion at the Ballycroy Visitor Centre at Wild Nephin National Park. The artwork was
Join us for the next episode in our “Women in Dark Skies” webinar series. We are thrilled that Dr Hannah Dalgleish will be our next guest speaker for our series entitled “Women in Dark Skies”. This webinar will be at 7pm on Friday 17th June – everyone is welcome! Hannah is a researcher at the University of
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Biodiversity Week 13-22nd May Monday 16th MayJoin us in Newport for an Open Evening to launch the next phase of the community Lighting Project for the town. The Friends of Mayo Dark Skies obtained support from The Heritage Council, and a new pilot test for lighting begins in Newport with expert lighting designer Kerem Asfuroglu.Community
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