Public Permaculture sites in Britain and Ireland

This thread is a resource for people living in, or visiting, the UK and Ireland, who want to see permaculture in real life. It is a list of demonstration gardens, ecofriendly homes and forest gardens. They are all believed to welcome visitors whether paying or as volunteers. Please contact the owners directly to make arrangements, if opening times are not clear in advance.

Some central resources with lists of sites:

https://www.permaculture.org.uk/land/visiting-and-volunteering
https://www.permaculture.org.uk/projects-and-land-map
https://www.permaculture.org.uk/scotland-centres
https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/about_us/network/
https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/your-area

Sites to visit:

England

Martin Crawford's forest garden and Agroforestry research sites: https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/research-site-tours/

Martin Crawford giving a tour of his forest garden

The Eden project: Botanical garden set in a huge crater garden with tropical and mediterranean biomes. https://www.edenproject.com


The Fern's field: Ken and Addy Fern's original Forest Garden and Land project. https://plantsforafuture.theferns.info/

source

The Sustainability Centre: https://www.sustainability-centre.org/all-about-us.html
From their site: Aim is to educate, enable and inspire people from all walks of life to make positive changes to the way they live and work. The site is spread across 55 acres of woodland and natural chalk downland.


SEAG - Shipley Eco-Action Group https://seag.uk/
Community garden and action group.


Leeds Permaculture community https://leedspermaculturenetwork.org/projects.html
Local network in Leeds promoting and networking with various community gardens and farms to visit

Meanwood Valley Urban farm, Leeds

Wales

Centre for Alternative Technology: https://cat.org.uk/

Apparently CAT are not hosting drop in visitors at the moment, but group visits and volunteering can still be arranged in advance.

Scotland

The Edible Woodland Garden at Findhorn: https://www.findhornhinterland.org/education/edible-woodland-garden/

Rubha Phoil: https://rubhaphoil.org/

Community and learning centre - visits by appointment.

Ireland (Including Northern Ireland)

Carraig Dúlra: https://www.dulra.org/

Carraig Dúlra  farm is a land based 4 acre small-holding on the site of a Wicklow hillside. It is a demonstration and research site for permaculture design and the application of permaculture in the areas of food production, natural building and resilence human livelihood creation.

This page is work in progress. If you have suggestions to add to this list (sites welcoming visitors, either drop in or by appointment) please reply below. Thanks!