Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns

Ballyhaunis

Tidy Towns

Keeping Ballyhaunis litterfree and biodiversity rich for future generations.

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Get Involved

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Our Initiatives

Biodiversity Action Plan

With funding from The Community Foundation Ireland, we have a plan to maintain and preserve our ecological footprint in Ballyhaunis.

Citizen Science Programme

In collaboration with Local Authority Waters Programme, our scientists meet 3-4 times a year to monitor the water quality of the Dalgan River, a tributary of the Clare River.

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Planting and Streetscape

Love flowers? Have a green thumb? Come and join our season work planting flowers for hanging baskets, filling planters aorund town, and beautifying roads into town.

National Spring Clean

Our volunteers organise An Taisce's National Spring Clean for Ballyhaunis and surrounding townlands, which take place on Good Friday.

SuperValu Tidy Towns Competition

The national SuperValu TidyTowns competitions is an annual contest organised by the Department of Rural and Community Development. Participating areas are rated on all aspects of their local environment and prizes are awarded to the best under many different categories. The overall winner is "Ireland's Tidiest Town", which is announced at a national ceremony in September each year.

Our volunteers manage the town's application for the competition each year where our marks have increased in recent years from 304 in 2019 to 315 in 2022.

Read our 2023 entry

Tour Ballyhaunis

Interested in seeing our works? Download a map of all the developments, landmarks and initiatives our volunteers have undertaken!

Download map

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Biodiversity Action Plan

The Biodiversity Action Plan for Ballyhaunis examines the biodiversity in the town and its potential for improvement. Grant funding was obtained from The Community Foundation for an ecologist to conduct fieldwork and research in 2022. We are fortunate to have the Friary Grounds and the Dalgan River as highlights of our town's biodiversity. With this document we are able to implement important steps to protect and preserve our ecology.

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Small actions to care for our biodiversity

FIT Counts

Flower-Insect Timed counts are a useful tool to measure change in the local biodiversity. Help track the impact of actions on insect numbers and diversity.

Download app >

Bird Watch Ireland

The Irish Garden Bird Survey is open to everyone! The survey runs from the first week of Dec to the last week of Feb every winter.

Take Part >

National Biodiversity Database

Document Ireland's wildlife in a dedicated Citizen Science portal.

Record Now >

Citizen Science

The Dalgan river monitoring initiative was launched on the 21st of April 2023 in collaboration with The Local Authorities Water Programme.

The Ballyhaunis Citizen Science programme, the first in County Mayo, wishes to engage communities and raise awareness in schools. Freshwater monitoring follows a simple “traffic light system” of good and bad indicator species, i.e. easily identifiable insects indicating the health of the aquatic environment.

The sampling is carried out at specific sites each season, and the data is entered in the National Biodiversity Database, to inform water quality trends and initiatives to improve it. We welcome volunteers to help us in our biodiversity actions.

Join us

Get to know us

The Ballyhaunis Tidy Towns group was founded in 2001. Our volunteers actively participate in environmental awareness initiatives and campaigns organised by Mayo County Council and other bodies, as well as embark on projects to highlight the rich biodiversity and heritage of the town and surrounding hinterland, such as:

Townland Signage Scheme where limestone signs were erected identifying the original townland names in Irish and English.
Installing Wildlife Information panels along the riverside walk in the Friary Grounds.
Creating the 1916 Memorial Garden to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising.
Restoring the Old Town Well, which was the only source of fresh water for local residents for centuries until the inauguration of the public supply in 1933, to its former glory.

We work closely with local organisations including the Community Council, the Abbey Partnership/Trust, Ballyhaunis Chamber and Annagh Magazine Society on variety of activities for the benefit of the town and its residents.

GET IN TOUCH

ballyhaunistidytowns@gmail.com

087 6982473