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.

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