Sky-train 2002 Mike Bulfin Ireland Raised Circle 2002 Maurice MacDonagh Ireland

Sculpture in the Parklands Sculpture park is open to the

public from dawn to dusk.
Welcome to Sculpture in the Parklands. The magnificent

Visitor’s Code wetlands and wildlife wilderness of Lough Boora now

host some of the most innovative land and environmental
Having grown up in
the area, my abiding
Hundreds of miles of rails
traverse Ireland’s bogs as
Free admission.
Please respect the art and the landscape. sculptures in Ireland. The artists, inspired by the rich memory is of the narrow-gauge locomotives
machines that Bord go to and fro, pulling long
Look and touch, but do not climb on the sculpture. You may natural and industrial legacy of the boglands, have
damage the sculpture and yourself.
na Móna brought in trains of turf wagons to
created a series of large-scale sculptures that are now to work the bogs: power stations. Maurice
Children must be accompanied part of the Parklands permanent collection. the ditchers, ridgers and trains. Looking at a line of peat MacDonagh’s Raised Circle,
by an adult.
wagons, flat on the horizon, I decided to take this image and fabricated from this narrow-
Please do not litter. Visitors are welcome to picnic in the commemorate it by translating it into a sculptural context- gauge rail, floats one metre above the landscape. The rail is
parklands but please bring your rubbish home with you. Sculpture in the Parklands began as an international
using Bord na Móna trains and wagons in a different plane- painted “Bord na Mona yellow”, which is found on everything
sculpture symposium in 2002 when seven Irish and
No alcohol in the parklands. hence the introduction of the rainbow curve. from locomotives to turf harvesting machinery.
international artist created works of art over a three week
Please do not enter areas marked “No public access” or
where machinery is being used to install sculpture. residency. Eight site- specific sculptures were created
during the symposium and they form the nucleus of the Boora Pyramid 2002 Eileen MacDonagh Ireland
Photography is permitted for personal use. Raised Line 2002 Maurice MacDonagh Ireland
project. The intervention of the symposium artists has Assisted by Marc Wouthers (Belgium)
Please respect other visitors in the sculpture park.
added another layer of engagement for visitors to the Harvested peat has inherent
Do not wade or swim in the canal. area, by combining visual and conceptual interpretations The idea of a pyramid limitations as a material for
was one, which evolved Land Art. It is so vulnerable
No horses, quad bikes or jeeps allowed along the walkways. of the geography, landscape, industrial history of peat
during visits to the site to erosion as to be unstable,
harvesting and the people who lived and worked here.
and discussions with yet it is the core substance
Bord na Móna about of Lough Boora. This led me
The success of the international sculpture symposium led the materials available to the idea of containment
to the formation of Sculpture in the Parklands, a 50-acre in the area. Our work - to create a container for
sculpture park, which continues to invite artists to create is a stepped pyramid, the harvested peat within a
eight metres wide and 6 form that derives from, and is relevant to, the landscape of
significant site- specific works of art during the artist in
metres high. It is made from unmortared glacial stone, Lough Boora.
residency programme each year. The mission of Sculpture which has been enshrouded in the growing bogs until
in the Parklands is to inspire artists to create artworks in revealed once more during peat harvesting. The pyramid
Enjoy your visit to the sculpture park response to the unique landscape and industrial heritage is one of the most stable structures and has resonance
Lough Boora Triangle 2002 Jorn Ronnau Denmark
and please observe the Sculpture in of the cut away bogland and to build awareness of the with previous times and cultures.
the Parklands visitors code. arts within the community through public participation A space for meditation. A small
and interaction. In addition to permanent sculpture triangular room with a very special
For Tours, Press Information and A Tree in a Sculpture 2002 Naomi Seki Japan
and time-based work, the project has a commitment atmosphere. Built around an iron
images concerning Sculpture in “ We finally learned to live frame, three black bog oak trunks
to commissioning video artists, composers, writers,
the Parklands please contact and let live. When will the will form the corners. Shaped
choreographers, and performance artists to interpret and
Kevin O’Dwyer tree grow taller than the irregular pieces of bogwood will
document this unique landscape, folklore and industrial form the somewhat transparent
info@sculptureintheparklands.com sculpture?”
history. walls. The narrow entrance will
The sculpture compares
the natural and man-made, be marked by a triangular serpent
Kevin O’Dwyer organic and geometrical- the stepping plate. Inside will be a yew
Artistic Director breathing and quiet between a seat where visitors will be able to sit looking out of the narrow
Sculpture in the Parklands tree and a sculpture entrance toward the horizon.
Lough Boora Parklands
the national centre of cutaway boglands rehabilitation info@sculptureintheparklands.com
Cover image Cycles 2006 Caroline Madden Ireland 60 Degrees 2002 Kevin O’Dwyer Ireland Bog Wood Road 2005 Johan Sietzema Holland Sky + Earth 2008 Martina Galvin Ireland Tippler Bridge 2009 Kevin O’Dwyer Ireland

The work Cycles is a conglomeration of ideas derived of

Lough Boora’s inherently beautiful landscape and wealth of The sculpture was fabricated from
Walking around in this special
landscape, I was thinking about
My impression of the landscape is one of
a teeming and active earth: dragonflies,
This sculpture was fabricated
from a recycled Tippler, Sculpture in the Parklands
cultural heritage. It focuses on the cyclical nature of land and materials long associated with the the great forest, that inhabited which was used at the where art and nature meet
butterflies, grasses and flowers
mankind’s interaction, be it ownership or the purpose for which industrial heritage of the cutaway this landscape over 3000 Ferbane power plant to
moving and swaying, an undergrowth
the land is used. bog- railway track, railway sleepers years ago. The 6 or 8 meters unload peat from incoming
of constant movement and change.
and steel plate. Two of the triangular of peat, cutaway from where carriages. The tippler is
The overall sculptural form proposes a crown referencing the We look down all the time, watching
early Kingship of Ireland. At the base of the sculpture are twelve forms were made from oak sleepers we are standing now, The Iron wrapped in galvanised
and observing. There in Lough Boora
blade forms, symbolic of blades engaged to cultivate the earth. bolted to a steel armature; the Age road-way constructions steel and the long narrow
Parklands I observed how big the
The raised linear stone wall which emanates from each blade sleepers were recently removed from across the peaty seas, the size horizontal openings are
skies seemed when I stopped looking
into the landscape stands, as a recorded memory of the scaring a disused bog train railway line laid and power of the stone-blocks everywhere. In direction of the made from tubular stainless steel. The piece was inspired by
down and looked up. The skies move
required in bringing forth new life. New life is represented by the in the 1950‚s. The wood triangles symbolised the old use of the bog. growing green “bog” of leafs from the trees today, my walk of the Nissen huts used in the 1940’s and 50’s, which housed Bord
constantly too, and rapidly. I wanted to
red seed forms spiralling out from the top of each arc to start a The centre triangle was made from stainless steel and symbolises several days, finding all these bogwood, thrown away like dirt na Mona workers during the peat harvest at Boora.
new cycle. The regal colour red simultaneously symbolizes life capture the vast expansive and fleeting skies, if only temporarily,
the new use of the Parklands. The triangular icons are held in place and left behind, I arranged a procession of found black-oak
and death thus, providing a complete cycle. in the surface of the earth. Its like cutting into the bog to reveal
using railway track, which once facilitated the movement of peat to trees coming out of the ground, climbing up to the level of the the sky above.
the Ferbane power station by the bog train. landscape long ago, like a visual and emotional way up, a bog Passage 2009 Alan Counihan Ireland
track; “ Bog – Wood – Road” Bog Oak Bridge 2008 Don O’Boyle Ireland
Boora Stacks 2002 Naomi Seki Japan My goal was to create a work which
This rustic bridge was serves as a visual and physical
This work is one of my tree Boora Convergence 2006 Dave Kinane Ireland
Moate R400 fabricated from a re-cycled entrance into a particular landscape,
series. While working in one within which the “passage” through
Rhode

Clara
Kilbeggan
Croghan
GRAND CANAL As other artists at Lough Boora have steel bridge base, which
the fabrication workshops dark matter into light can be physically
R444

R436

Pollagh Rahan
Daingean

noticed the industrial bog is criss- was once used for passage
of Boora Works I found
Ferbane Tullamore R402

GRAND CANAL
R420 Ballingar
crossed by lines of machine cuts, drains of light gauge engines and felt. A trench cut into an existing turf
R357

some disused chimney bank, floored with rail track, lined with
Mucklagh

trailers across the bogs in

Geashill

R356
Cloghan
R437
Mountbolus Killeigh R420
and railways. While observing this I was
stacks.  I was attracted sleepers. Beyond the passage three
R438 R421

Banagher Kilcormac
Ballyboy also drawn to the image of the Ferbane the late 1940’s. The bogwood
to their colour and vertical rails reach skyward. Beyond
R439

uprights are carbon dated

Rath

Birr
Killyon R421 cooling towers, as I remember them on
Kinnitty
R440
texture. I decided to make the horizon. The towers ironically, while over 4000 years old and come from Oranagh Bog. The pine these, a trail into the forest.
Slieve Bloom Lough Boora a sculpture, which handrail was found in Killaun Bog at the old firing range used
Mountains

appearing to be all curves, are in fact

R421

Parklands
incorporated eleven of the former chimney stacks. The made of straight lines arranged in a circle. by British soldiers from Crinkle Barracks in the late 1800’s.
chimneys were filled with peat and set into a specially Now I could use the steel and wood of Visitor’s Pavilion and Burrow Shelter
constructed wooden frame made of Douglas fir. I planted the the railway and arrange them in a circle I 2006-2007 Caelan Bristow Ireland
stacks with heather and birch, both native to Lough Boora System no.30 2009 Julian Wild UK
could build a stable, skeletal construction. I could reference the
Parklands. My intention was to give life back to the chimney industrial heritage of the cutaway bog in the choice of materials My shelter designs were inspired
DIRECTIONS BY ROAD “System no.30” is part of a
stacks within the landscape and by the form they take. by ancient forms of enclosure
sequentially numbered series
and natural animal habitats,
From Tullamore: Leave Tullamore on N52 for Birr. At Happiness 2005 Marianne Jorgensen Denmark of works. I collected pieces of
prioritizing reclaimed and
Blueball turn right onto R357 for Cloghan / Shannonbridge. scrap from the site. I saw this
Ruaille Buaille 2008 Patrick Dougherty USA natural materials for gentle
The Parklands commence within 7 km of Blueball. The artwork HAPPINESS is process as a kind of archaeology,
integration of the forms in the
created by cutting the word I have built a walk through work in which each gear and piece of
From Birr: Take N52 towards Tullamore, exit for N62 to landscape. I incorporated some
happiness into the surface which embodies momentum metal told part of the story of the
Athlone. Continue to Cloghan, turning right off roundabout of the disused peat harvesting
of this particular landscape, and the forces of nature. The industrial heritage of the site.
onto R357. The Parklands commence within 2km. machinery and materials found in the Bord na Mona yards,
where the top soil consists sculpture will rise above the Welding these scraps of machinery together, I wanted to hold
giving new life to discarded creatures. The shelters will be
of black peat. HAPPINESS grove of Alder trees and will this collection of objects within a prevailing, ordered form. The
Photographs 2002 and 2008 colonized by local flora and fauna, so the visitor’s experience of
is cut very deep into the turf include hallways and swirling disk form lends itself well to the idea of a skimming stone that
James Fraher Photographer in Residence appears to bounce over the surface of the canal. It is held in the
Sculpture in the Parklands is both monumental and vast.
by hand in the old-fashioned chambers. This is one of my
way and according to old methods in order to produce the largest works to date. air by the line of trajectory that it leaves behind.
www.sculptureintheparklands.com most precise imprint of the text.