Community

Future Forests

Crainn

We are a family run business with a passion for growing and our environment, and one of the leading mail order plant providers in Ireland. With our roots firmly planted in the wilds of West Cork we have been inspired to work alongside our unique environmental heritage to evolve an ethical business where our values and ethos lead the way.

From humble beginnings 30 years ago we have been pioneering the gardens, orchards and woodlands of the future, developing to a committed, experienced team who are here to help you find what to grow and how best to grow it.

We love plants and aim to bring you the best quality and range to meet your specific needs. From beginner gardeners to seasoned growers we can help you to select the most suitable plants for your garden as well as your budget.

With years of business expertise behind us we have established strong relationships with growers and suppliers in Ireland and beyond to bring you the best possible range of high quality plants.

As our name suggests, the future is important to us. As growers, educators and innovators we believe we have the responsibility to protect and ensure the future of our diverse landscape and environment. Our intention is to leave a legacy that our future ancestors will be proud of. We’d love to support you to do so too.

What we do

At Future Forests we are passionate about sourcing and supplying some of the best plants in Europe. We are one of Ireland’s leading mail order plant suppliers and we have a nursery and garden centre in West Cork.

We pride ourselves on the diversity of the plants we offer. From native trees & hedging to perennial flowers and alpines our huge range caters for the new garden owner to the seasoned grower.  

We are engaged in the community

We also work with schools, community groups, country estates, landscapers and the farming community helping to source and select the right plants for all locations and situations. 

We offer plants for every site and situation

Live on a windy, coastal or shady site? We offer plants for challenging conditions too! 

We are experts in packing and shipping plants

We supply bareroot plants from November to April and a large variety of potted plants all year around. 

Brigit’s Garden

Tallamh

Themed on the Celtic seasonal festivals, Brigit’s Garden is widely regarded as one of the most spectacular gardens in Ireland set within 11 acres of native woodland & wildflower meadows. Its features include: a nature trail, ogham trees, children’s discovery trail, living willow play area, Roundhouse and calendar sundial, the largest in Ireland. Dine indoors in our light-filled dining room or al-fresco on our patio overlooking the Garden at our excellent Garden Café.

A walk through the four Gardens takes you on a journey through the Celtic cycle of the seasons, each garden representing one of the Celtic festival of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa. This seasonal cycle mirrors the cycle of life from conception to old age and death. The design weaves Celtic stories with contemporary design to create spaces that are beautiful and tranquil yet inspiring and full of life.

The Roundhouse nestles in the centre of the Gardens, with windows looking out onto each of the four Gardens. This is a place for art and music, meditation, meetings or just relaxing.

Meander along the Sun Trail and wander through our woodlands and meadows, with sun features, energy installations and the crannog, with boards giving visitors information on ecology, history and mythology.

Cruthaigh

Imbas

Cruthaigh means ‘to create’ in Irish and was brought about to inspire healing through creativity under the Spiral as the symbol for change in Ireland.

Creativity, inspiration and healing are three major elements to healthy individuals and communities and Cruthaigh intends on making that common knowledge around Ireland. It is very important for individuals to know that change must happen within themselves before the world will change. As above, so below, as within, so without.

By Cruthaigh becoming a nationally recognised entity that blurs the world’s of the ancient and the modern it is is destined that our lovely land of Ireland will once again become a festival of love and craic forevermore.

Hometree

Crainn

Our work is to establish and conserve permanent native woodland in Ireland, encouraging land regeneration and biodiversity through afforestation, restoration and education.

Ireland was once a land of forests. At one time, up to 80% of the country was covered in native wildwood. Irish culture still contains echoes of this, in Ireland’s ‘tree alphabet’ – the ancient Ogham script – in the Gaelic names for common trees, folklore, and song.

Yet today, Ireland is the most deforested country in Europe. Just over 1% of that original forest cover remains. Hometree is changing this. Our vision is the restoration of Ireland’s ancient wildwood. Through conservation, afforestation and education, we aim to create a landscape in which people and forests flourish, together.

Hometree began in a small community garden project in winter 2015, where we saw how important it was for people to connect with nature. Five years on, hometree has planted over 30,000 pioneer trees like scots pine, willow and alder, while hundreds of people have contributed time and resources to the vision of incorporating more trees into the Irish landscape, bringing all the benefits that woodlands create.

Our current fundraising comes from partnerships, people and businesses who share and wish to support Hometree’s goals and those who are curious to educate themselves and connect to their sense of stewardship for the natural world. We’ve worked with over 50 businesses, from small startups to multinational organisations like Medtronic, the global leader in medical technology.

What began as a tree-planting charity is growing into a project which endeavours to deeply connect people with nature, and facilitates a wide variety of projects that are fundamental to addressing both Ireland’s declining biodiversity and the unfolding climate challenge.


Three Branches of Hometree

Education
Afforestation
Conservation

Reforestation Nation

Crainn

Our mission is simple, plant trees, absorb CO2, transform our environment, increase biodiversity, and help educate people on why restoring nature is essential for all of us.

Ireland, was once the most forested country in Europe, over thousands of years of deforestation our forests where reduced to just 1% by the 1920’s. Since then our forest cover has increased to 11% still lower than any other country in Europe. This eleven-fold increase, however, is quite misleading, as only 2% of Ireland is actually covered in native Irish trees, the other 9% is non native conifer plantations. These mono-cultures provide very little habitat for our native wildlife as they spent millions of year evolving in a different ecosystem the other side of the planet.

We are a local Irish social enterprise with the purpose of helping restore the lost biodiversity of our local environment through the planting of native trees while helping people across Ireland and the world become carbon neutral. We will first plant ten thousand trees, once we have achieved this we will set a new goal to plant even more trees. Through the planting of these trees, 10 million kilograms of CO2 will be absorbed from the atmosphere helping Ireland achieve its climate change targets faster. These trees will provide nesting material, shelter and food for Ireland’s declining bird population. They will also act as cover for mammals like hedgehogs and badgers to allow them to wander the countryside undisturbed. Finally, they will also provide nectar for butterflies and bees, 30% of which could go extinct in the next ten years, if we don’t offer them a helping hand.

We can not do this alone. We will be partnering with land owners to plant trees on unused land and along field margins. We will be also be reaching out to the people and the businesses of Ireland to help achieve our goal of biodiversity and a better environment for us all to live in!

Sunday Sessions at Carrowcrory Labyrinth Gardens

Eolas Ársa

A quiet tranquil space in rural Co. Sligo where nature joins traditions, and sources of stories and inspiration are abundant.

Carrowcrory Sunday Sessions is our online weekly time of exploring nature centred sidhe, water, and tree folklore, and connecting this to your favourite sanctuary spaces. From within our own Tree Labyrinth Garden we broadcast encouragement to contemplate this lore from within your own favourite nature sanctuary. Then express your inspired visions there through your poetry, writing, art, craft and problem solving.

Wild Irish Retreat

Eolas Ársa

When a language is lost it creates a rupture in the national psyche. To lose a language is to lose the knowledge of the environment and the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors, for without knowing our history, we cannot understand our present.  We are in need of a cure.

We believe that by awakening the language within, we awaken ancestral memories and the wild nature that is our heritage. 

To that end, we create a space and the activities for a person to connect with the wildness within and without.

The Woodland League

Crainn

The Woodland League is a not-for-profit, independent, community-based, non-denominational and non-political organisation. Our aim is to restore the relationship between people and their native woodlands.

We support the philosophy underpinning Agenda 21, the blueprint for a sustainable future agreed by 176 nations at Rio De Janero in 1992. This concept calls for the balancing of man-made systems and natural eco-systems. We are also guided by the Brehon law system of Ireland, which along with other ancient & indigenous people’s systems are the projenitors of this new wave of ecological thinking. The outdated model of development, which is still being followed, can not deliver a sustainable future for this planet. Agenda 21 provides a framework to create new models for sustainable development sorely needed at this juncture in time.

The Convention on Biological Diversity 1993, to which Ireland is a signatory, states that native forests must be granted highest priority for protection, conservation and enhancement. All stability in nature, of soil, air and water is conferred by native trees. The native trees of any place are nature’s highest achievement in the plant kingdom.

We are helping communities become aware of their rights and entitlements under Agenda 21, to clean air, soil and water via increased native woodlands. We hold walks and talks throughout the country promoting native woodland heritage and actively lobby to change Irish forestry policy.

Ripple Effect Ireland

Uisce

Highlighting how seaswimming can have a positive impact on many aspects of your life including #wellbeing

The Ripple Effect Ireland was set up on 2021 with the intention of spreading the good word about sea swimming and its benefits. We wanted to highlight that sea swimming not only impacts the person swimming but also how it can massively benefit other areas of their lives. Everyone has their own thing they take from sea swimming and if our page can inspire even just one person to take the plunge then the ripple effect of that spreads throughout. Sea swimming is a brilliant community of like minded people.