Tasked with highlighting the natural allure and rich history of Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, Fáilte Ireland’s Fiona Dunne spoke to the Galway Advertiser about the region’s rising popularity, the benefits tourism brings to local communities and why the central plains should be on your must visit list this summer.
Boasting an abundance of natural, untouched environment, culturally rich and historically significant sites and waterways and walking routes to delight outdoors men and women, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands truly is the beating heart of the island.
Stretching to touch one third of the island’s counties, the Hidden Heartlands encompasses the entire counties of Cavan, Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon, Westmeath, Offaly, and parts of East Clare, East Galway, North Tipperary and the Ballyhoura region of East Limerick/North Cork.
Inspired by the success story of the Wild Atlantic Way, the Hidden Heartland’s campaign was launched in 2018. Designed to be the quiet, calm and active sister to the Wild Atlantic Way’s artsy, festival rich campaign, the Hidden Heartlands appeals to the environmentally conscious, outdoor sports loving visitors who are hoping to enjoy a less commercialised tourist destination in Ireland.
“The Hidden Heartlands is an attempt to look at tourism through a different lens,” explained Fiona. “It is about seeing how we can generate income in these counties and to regenerate villages in the area and create opportunity.
To use industry terms, compared to the long established Wild Atlantic Way and the visitor saturated areas which it encompasses, such as Galway city, Hidden Heartlands is categorised as an “immature” destination, a title which comes with its own benefits.
“The Hidden Heartlands is not as well known, but it comes with the beauty of a place that is less well known,” said Fiona. “There is a hunger and an appetite for innovation amongst the communities, the small businesses, the local authorities and organisations like Waterways Ireland to appeal to visitors.”
Creating the brand
Launched by Fáilte Ireland in 2018, the Hidden Heartlands campaign was established following extensive research regarding visitor interest from consumers from Ireland, UK, Germany, France and the US. The result was a designated area designed to capitalise on the abundance of nature available in the country’s central plains, and a visitor campaign which complimented the success of the preceding projects; Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East.
Aimed at consumers who were drawn by the environmental angle, the Hidden Heartlands has capitalised off its appeal as an area rich with opportunities to be ‘active in nature’, highlighting potential to explore the region off the beaten tracks through a range of activities including walking, food, cycling, fishing, and boating routes.
Occurring just two years after the campaign’s launch, COVID-19 would prove to be a blessing in disguise for the Hidden Heartlands. With the regions large open spaces and abundance of restriction approved outdoor activities, it quickly became a favourite destination for those opting to holiday at home during the lockdown era.
“During COVID, the whole premise of outdoor activities — getting out, going for a walk and for a cycle, that kind of thing — really grew in popularity. It was clear then that the idea of a destination that was focused on leading the outdoors but backed by significant heritage, which is the case for the hidden heartlands, that there was a real appetite for that kind of region,” said Fiona.
“The Hidden Heartlands is a region that leads with an environmental message. Meaning that the towns and the villages in the area, to the activities available, contribute to a tourism offering that is rooted in the environment. From the River Shannon, to the Beara Breifne Way and the peatlands areas, the Hidden Heartlands has it all, but it also has another key element which draws people in, it also has lots of heritage.”
Alluring peatlands
Formerly a Bord na Móna peat harvesting site, Lough Boora Discovery Park in Co Offaly, is a prime example of a formerly industrial cutaway area which has been reincarnated as an amenity with high biodiversity value. With peat cutting quickly becoming a thing of the past, EU funded environmental schemes such as the Just Transition project, has created a new potential revenue stream via tourism targeting the region’s bogs.
“It is not just the heritage and the environment drawing people to the Hidden Heartlands,” explains Fiona. “The peatlands are a hugely important factor in the recent years, creating the potential to promote a new kind of opportunity founded on biodiversity. Take for example what has been happening in the Just Transition areas, it really is Ireland’s climate change story.
“There is now opportunity for recreation and visitors to the peatland areas to take a walk, to learn about biodiversity and climate change as well as the history of the area and how people made their living and Bord na Móna worked in the past. So we are kind of working on developing a tourism approach to discovering the peatlands.”
With one of the Hidden Heartland’s famous bogs located within Galway, domestic and international visitors can learn more about the peatlands without leaving the county thanks to the Living Bog in Mountbellew.
An organic kind of tourism
Over time, the boundaries of the Hidden Heartlands has grown larger, with the defined region now encompassing the popular Ballyhoura region of North Cork. Famous for its community driven tourism initiative in the 1980s, the small towns and villages dotted throughout the Hidden Heartlands really are at the core of the region’s appeal to visitors.
“Ballyhoura were pioneers of community tourism in the 80s and I think that very much reflects the kind of ethos in the Hidden Heartlands. We aren’t aiming for a huge volume of people to come to the area, and we certainly want to grow business and the profile of the area, but we don’t want to see over tourism in the area. It is about a balance.”
From the community created Beara Breifne Way, to the festivals and celebrations of music in Mountshannon, Co Clare and to the newly unveiled Inis Cealtra visitor centre located in the village, there are a number of examples of the community coming together to promote the region.
“Take the new visitor centre for example, which really nails an interpretation of the area through its history and environment as well as the heritage of Mountshannon which is rooted in music. When you go to visit, you are not just learning about the history of the island and the monks, you are learning about the people who lived there, and what the area means to people who live there now,” said Fiona.
“I think that is what is really significant about the Hidden Heartlands. It has got a higher rate of community run businesses that are not businesses but community run experiences, than any other part of the country.”
Examples of this range from the Arigna Mining Experience in Co Roscommon to the Athenry Heritage Centre here in Galway.
Organic tourism
With organisations like Bia Innovator helping small food businesses to establish a tourism stream alongside their products, a key element of the Hidden Heartlands is to empower local businesses to take advantage of potential tourism revenue.
“At the end of the day, the Hidden Heartlands is more than just tourism, it is about creating opportunity for the small towns and villages in the region and to help to keep people living in those areas.
“It is organic tourism, one that has been home grown and in a non self-conscious way. It is all the things we love about Ireland.”
