The challenge

Irish lighthouses are now automated so the keepers and their families have left. The Commissioners of Irish Lights are seeking a new use for the buildings based on heritage tourism.

Our responses

We greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work alongside the brand developers right from the start of the process. This led to a strong connection between the brand and visitor experience and interpretation.

We developed guiding principles and approaches for interpretation that would run across all lighthouses. This identified some elements of that would be consistent across all of them and allowed considerable scope for expressing the distinctive local character, including connections with the local community.

Face-to-face interpretation was a key part of our proposals. All lighthouse tours are to be led by ‘storykeepers’, specially trained local people who will explain the contemporary function of the lighthouse as well as stories about the people and events of the past.

We produced detailed interpretive plans for three lighthouses.

Related Projects

  • Rathlin Island

    • Heritage and Wildlife Interpretation
    • Sustainable Heritage Tourism
    • Visitor Experience Strategy
    • Natura 2000 European Site
    • Nature Reserve

    Our visitor experience plan identified how the RSPB reserves could encourage more visitors to Rathlin Island.

  • Sharing the best of Shropshire

    • Heritage and Wildlife Interpretation
    • Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
    • Region

    We were pleased to work closely with Shropshire County Council on a county wide strategy about using interpretation to develop cultural tourism.