The Irish Archaeological Field School carried out a community excavation and 3 field school excavations in Ferns, as well as online training courses, an Aidan’s Monastery activity day, a schools and families engagement programme and the publication of a book entitled ‘Uncovering Medieval Ferns’.
You can find the reports at the bottom of the page.
The Creative Camino was a 7-day artist pilgrimage, which took place in May 2022 along the Wexford Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way; the new walking route created by Ancient Connections, linking Ferns in County Wexford to St Davids in Pembrokeshire. Filmmaker Will Philpin of When It Rains Creative, documented the experience of the four artists and the community pilgrims along the route.
Will created a series of short episodes capturing moments along the route and made a short documentary film, which can be found at the bottom of this page.
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The Creative Camino was a 7-day pilgrimage along the new walking route, the Wexford Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way, linking Ferns in County Wexford to St Davids in Pembrokeshire. Two artists from Pembrokeshire, Ailsa Richardson and Suzi McGregor, and two artist from Wexford, Bonnie Boux and Kate Powell, took part along with a number of community Pilgrims. It was led by Journeying’s Iain Tweedale. In the lead up to the Creative Camino, filmmaker Will Philipin of When It Rains Creative created a trailer of the forthcoming pilgrimage, short film entitled ‘Who is a Pilgrim?’ and interviews with the four artists capturing their expectations of the pilgrimage that lay ahead of them.
The Allabair Trio Concerts took place in May 2022 and June 2023 in St. Edan’s Cathedral, Ferns, with music performed and composed by Melanie O’Reilly also featuring David Creevy on guitar and Brewen Favreau on Uillean Pipes/Low Whistle, with guest choir, the Chord On Blues led by Mary Moulds. The concerts premiered new songs inspired by the connection between St. Aidan and St. David.
Artist Bedwyr Williams was commissioned to create a permanent public artwork for St Davids and Ferns as a legacy to the Ancient Connections programme.
Inspired by the story of St Aidan, St David and the bees, Williams has created a series of giant beehives, three in St Davids Cathedral grounds and three in Ferns. These evocative structures are modelled loosely on the kind of traditional straw skep hives that St Aidan might have used in the care of St David’s bees.
Though much larger in scale and simpler in form, these skep sculptures house real bee colonies in conventional beehives, creating a living, working sculpture for both sites. Beekeepers in both communities have been active in the design of the skeps and are taking care of the bee colonies. In time, both Ferns and St Davids will produce their own honey, which will be harvested and jarred for sale at both sites and shared across the Irish Sea between the neighbouring communities.
The story goes that, on leaving St David, Aidan was followed by David’s bees three times to the ship as he attempted to return to Ireland. Each time St Aidan dutifully returned the bees to the monastery but on the third occasion Saint David, seeing St Aidan’s kindness, agreed for the bees to accompany him to Ireland. Williams feels that this story, whether truth or myth, is a nice motif for the connection between both sites.
By evoking or invoking this ‘story’ with a sculpture, which also has a practical use it’s possible to make these ancient connections feel tangible and relatable
The bees that inhabit the sculptures are producing delicious honey, which is sold at the Ferns Medieval Experience in Wexford and St Davids Cathedral Gift Shop in Pembrokeshire.
Bedwyr Williams is originally from St Asaph and is now based in Caernafon. He is widely recognised as one of Wales’ most significant contemporary artists and represented Wales in the Venice Biennale in 2013 with his installation ‘The Starry Messenger’. He works across a range of mediums in both gallery and public art settings, often employing wry humour and surrealism to explore culture through a different lens. For this project, he has worked closely with the Contemporary Art Society, a consultancy specialising in support and delivery of public art projects. Bedwyr says: ‘As an artist I like turning to stories and myths for my inspiration and what I really enjoy is working with these tales in a playful relatable way’
“I’m interested in objects that invite communities to become active participants to make the artwork whole. I want people to become fully engaged in the artwork, doing the little things to bring the artwork to life, forgetting themselves and their daily concerns for a few hours. St David’s last words were “Gwnewch y pethau bychain” or “Do the little things.” This ethos has guided the development of my proposal which is founded on the story of St David and St Aidan and steeped in the magic and history of these two intertwined locations”.
Funded by: Ancient Connections
Dates 2021-2022
