Sand Martins are on the amber-list of birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland. Providing secure nest sites in purpose-built Sand Martin nesting walls has proven to help with the conservation of this important bird species and as an effective educational tool to inspire the protection of these beautiful birds. Carroll Joinery kindly donated funds to Wildacres which have been used to purchase materials for the creation of the Sand Martin nesting bank. You can read more about this project here. Following this success, Carroll Joinery have committed to donating further funds to Wildacres in the coming years, which will be hugely beneficial. We are very grateful for this very generous support! Carroll Joinery is a leader in its field. Over 50 years it has established itself as the leading supplier of doorsets, with the widest ranges of doors in the country.  

  It’s exciting to be restoring and creating habitats on land that was intensively managed mono-species pastureland. Some of these habitats are natural ones such as woodland, hedgerow, ponds and meadow, while others are built habitats such as nest and roost boxes. These actions have reaped phenomenal awards in terms of the variety and abundance of wildlife returning. We are so grateful to Gorilla Design for supporting our efforts with financial assistance for a variety of biodiversity projects which you can read more about here. Based in Dublin and catering to events throughout Ireland, Gorilla Design specialises in Event Draping, Lighting, Staging and Set Design.

  In September 2022 we met Sarah McLoughlin for the first time when she came on our Wildlife Ponds Workshop. Sarah is a renowned Psychotherapist who runs her professional practice, McLoughlin Therapy, in Dublin. Since October 2025 Sarah has been very kindly donating a very generous percentage of her business income, each month, to Wildacres. Sarah has a deep understanding of the natural world and of the importance of human connection to nature for our health and well-being. She is so passionate about this, that she wants clients to feel empowered by knowing that a portion of their fees are supporting biodiversity restoration and education at Wildacres on an on-going basis. We are extremely grateful.

We're buzzing about our Bee Hotels and Banks! There is lots of natural habitat around the nature reserve for Solitary Bees - both cavity nesting and ground nesting species. These important pollinators need a food source within 300m of their nest. Between wildflower meadow, wild margins and flowering hedgerow there are plenty of pollen and nectar sources for them at Wildacres. To give them a helping hand and to provide educational features, we have created artificial structures for the two types. Bee Hotels for Cavity Nesting Solitary Bees At Wildacres we have designed a bee hotel which has been very successful at attracting Mason Bees and Leafcutter Bees as can be seen from the photos below. We use salvaged roof tiles and wood pieces to create these built habitats. We have placed several Bee Hotels around the nature reserve for educational purposes. They are also available for attendees of biodiversity workshops at Wildacres to purchase. Each one comes with this information sheet to...

  We established Wildacres with our personal savings but our ongoing work on the nature reserve with biodiversity restoration, monitoring and education is funded with enterprise income from our events and produce, grant aid, volunteers, and corporate sponsorship. We are very grateful to NorDan for their donation to Wildacres which we have used create one of our larger wildlife ponds. NorDan produce strong and resilient Timber and Alu-Clad windows and doors. At Wildacres we are building a strong and resilient social enterprise on a mission to restore Ireland’s biodiversity and to empower others to do the same and are delighted to have their support.