Over the course of the Development Phase of the Ballycastle Museum Restoration Project, staff from council’s Museum Services have carried out the following community engagement programmes with the support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, delivering above and beyond the targets proposed in the development phase application.

The museum staff, supported by the Friends of Ballycastle Museum volunteer group, ran four public information and consultation sessions and 10 days of pop-up museums including days at the Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival, the Auld Lammas Fair, Ballycastle September markets, and the St Patrick’s Day community festival, engaging with a total of 1,524 people to discuss the plans and progress of the project.

A total of 13 online or in-person public talks were delivered on local topics ranging from castles to the workhouse, and from local stonemasons to the hidden treasures of the museum collection. There were 422 participants live, and, as of the start of September 2025, a further 2,773 viewers watching the recorded talks online.

Museum staff, volunteers from the Friends of Ballycastle Museum, and other community participants took part in ‘best practice’ visits to six locations throughout Northern Ireland where heritage buildings have been restored for use as museums or other community spaces. At each location, participants engaged in useful conversations with the host organisations discussing challenges around the restoration process. In total, 43 participants visited Enniskillen Workhouse, Rathfriland Regeneration Project, Bangor Courthouse, North Down Museum, Cushendun Old Church and Carnlough Heritage Hub.

An 11 day community archaeology project, in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast, engaged with 286 participants drawn from all three primary schools, both secondary schools, home-schoolers and adult volunteers.

Pilot programmes were run to develop resources for young people including rhythm and rhyme workshop for under-5s, a Key Stage 2 inter-generational programme exploring changes over time, a number of Key Stage 3 resources to support the teaching of local history at secondary school, and the development of an OCN Level 2 (DB7/2/NI/017) aimed at Key Stage 4 students in heritage interpretation for museums.

Aiming to develop a history of Castle Street, Ballycastle, to better understand the history of the museum building in context, staff and volunteers engaged with businesses and property owners to create a 160 page, 28,000 word, database charting histories of 45 properties on Castle Street.

Staff delivered oral history training for six volunteers to assist building up the museum’s oral history archive, resulting in new recordings with 20 interviewees.

A review of all previous accessibility work was carried out, and additional workshops were carried out with an autism focus group and men’s groups providing support of mental health leading to the production of an accessibility report for Ballycastle Museum.

Additional reports were also produced detailing heritage research leading to story line creation, a collections management plan and draft project evaluation report.

Increased visibility and excitement around the project generated 30 new donations to the museum collection ranging from prehistoric archaeology, photo albums, a 19^th century mantel clock with links to the workhouse, commercial records of Castle Street businesses, maritime archaeology, early 20^th century school roll books, an embalming kit, and a 1930s Irish dancing cape. Offers of additional new items (not yet received) include an early 20^th century pipers costume from the Feis na nGleann and Medieval bell shrine (currently on display in the Ulster Museum).

Click here to find out more about the Ballycastle project