The Maharees Conservation Association, Kerry

Located on the Dingle Peninsula, The Maherees is a place of exceptional beauty with its long uninterrupted blue-flag beaches and stunning coastline. Although known worldwide for its spectacular sand dunes, these dunes have been severely impacted by the huge Atlantic swells and strong winter winds.

The Maharees Conservation Association was set up in 2016 to enhance, protect, and preserve this unique coastline in North Kerry and take community-led climate adaption. The volunteer-run charity works with the local community, visitors, NGOs, state agencies and the local authority to protect The Maharees sand dune system and habitats as well as the community and heritage of the area.

In its conservation work, the group use nature-based solutions such as fencing, marram planting and dune awareness generation. Its work has been used as an exemplar in national and international research studies in nature-based solutions for climate adaption and biodiversity.

National Lottery Good Causes funding in 2021 enabled the group to develop a Maharees Heritage Trail. This mobile accessible self-guided trail is freely available online or as an app. As well as imagery and video, it provides a text and audio description of 20 points of interest around The Maharees and explores natural, cultural, living and built heritage aspects. It also informs users about the fragility of the habitats and how small changes to behaviour can help to protect them.

The judges for the National Lottery Good Causes Awards were impressed by the group’s proactive spirit, commitment to protecting their environment and readiness to share knowledge with other coastal communities. United by a shared mission, the Maharees Conservation Association has taken bold steps to learn, plan and act in the face of climate change. The National Lottery Good Causes Awards consider the 2024 Heritage category winners to be a shining example of how local action can make a big difference.