Wild Flowers

Wild Flowers

Well folks. It’s been a while since I blogged so I hope I can fill you in on our progress to get this hostel off the ground.

We have had some truly wonderful volunteers stay with us from the beginning of the year and all are dearly missed by us. We have on the flip side eight new volunteers booked in so things will start moving again.

A neighbouring barn has been repaired so progress is being made to make everything 100% safe and pointing has begun around the Schoolhouse itself.

Drew built single handedly one tyre wall. Our superman! We will continue with the huge wall and the two other small walls in the garden this summer.

Our new sceptic tank will soon be installed so last years tyre wall volunteers work will be put to the test.

Hemp has been sourced and is ready for collection so the hall shall be plastered soon and our stonemason will be recycling all the old flagstones we salvaged from the Schoolhouse and completing our internal courtyard. I can’t wait.

The Tinahely Walking Festival was a huge success and will be on 1st May, 2011 so we will hopefully have everything ready for that date and the Tinahely Agricultural Fair is coming up quickly on August Bank Holiday Weekend.

Its full steam ahead for us..and thanks for keeping track of us on our blog and facebook.

Don’t forget to check out the walking festival right on our doorstep (literally!) and all at the Wicklow Hostel wish the busy Walkers Welcome Committee members the best of luck in the launch of the new looped walks which have been recently approved! Well Done 🙂

Well things have been ticking over nicely at the Wicklow Hostel. Although we do not intend now to open for this season we are still on schedule. We have enlised the help from a new Workaway volunteer Drew from Colorado and have said a sad farewell to New York Steve and French Roman.

We have decided to build a small wall (made of tyres of course 🙂 ) at the rear of the property and will lay flagstones and freshen up the place with a new lick of breathable paint. Pointing has begun around the schoolhouse and the good weather is in!

Due to unforeseen circumstances we are unable to open our doors for business this season. That said we are still accepting volunteers to help us get to the end line. We are continuing to work on our earthship wall this summer and will be pointing and landscaping our gardens. We thank you for following our progress and will keep you updated as often as we can. Please do not forget about the Tinahely Walkers Welcome Walking Festival taking place on April 17th !

Saturday 6th March – Star Gazing with the Irish Astronomical Society
Saturday 27th March – Grouse Hike (4/5 hour hike on Wicklow Way near Djouce Mountain).
Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th April – Tinahely Walkers Welcome Festival!!
Saturday 17th April – Conservation Hike (Upper Lake of Glendalough)
Saturday 24th April – Knocksink Wood Wildflower Walk
Thursday 13th May – Knocksink Wood Bat Walk
Sunday 16th May – Dawn Chorus with Birdwatch Ireland for National
Biodiversity Week (Upper Lake Glendalough)
Date to be announced – Falcon Watch
Saturday 26th June – Bug Walk
Saturday 24th July – Bog Walk
Saturday 12th August – Glendalough Bat Night
Saturday 21st August – Tree ID Walk for National Heritgage Week
Saturday 16th October – Deer Rut Watch

For more information on these walks Please Telephone: 040445656 or check out wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie

After a slow start to the year we are now focused on getting our place in order. With two months to go until we open our doors we have a large checklist to get through. Boris & Steve have begun finishing off the floors and with Romain and our weekend volunteers arriving soon we should get back to working outside. The cookbook is well under way..some last minute tasting to do..yum yum and our courses should be finalised next week. Its all good. Optimism all the way..

We are gearing up to give our house a final shove so that we can open up for business. We aim to have complete our extension first, finishing the plastering and painting and carpentry and then its outside to focus on the landscaping. New courses will soon be added to our website http://www.wicklowhostel.ie and we have some volunteers booked in to help us out. Watch this space for photos!