A new project that aims to nurture a new, sustainable relationship with Ireland’s ecologically and culturally important peatlands landscape will be launched next weekend at the Bog Trotters' Festival in Clara, Co. Offaly.

Titled 'Bog Bothy', will be presented by the Irish Architecture Foundation and the organisation 12th Field - which works in the areas of research, mapping, advocacy, and creative design.

Following over two years of work, the launch at the Bog Trotters' Festival from June 20- 22, will feature a new bothy shelter - a purpose-built structure and gathering space for deep engagement with the bog that builds on the design language of Ireland’s peatlands.

An exhibition of photographs and drawings by resident artist, Luke Casserly, responding to the peatlands and its people and the Bog Bothy project, will be featured at the event

There will also be a public programme of conversations from both a national and local perspective on the evolving relationship with Ireland’s peatlands through the lens of architecture and placemaking.

In addition, there will be a curated exploration of labour, trace, and climate in the boglands, exploring the bog as both a historical archive and a future landscape.

This will include photographs by Shane Hynan, an artist with an interest in the bogs and their community and industrial heritage. He has brought his hands-on experience of community peatland management to Knockirr Bog in Co. Kildare.

The bothy structure has been co-created with communities in counties Offaly, Louth and Meath and designed by architects Evelyn D’Arcy and David Jameson of 12th Field.

In recent years, peatlands have been seen primarily as energy landscapes, and harvesting peat and turf plays a very important role in Ireland’s social history and cultural memory.

However, peatlands also have thousands of years of providing many different important roles for communities, from rush and herb collection to farming, the Irish Architecture Foundation said.

According to a foundation spokesperson: "People also lived directly on bogs, with evidence of houses on stilts.

"Bogs provide an important habitat for flora and fauna, including some of Ireland’s most endangered birds, such as the curlew.

The Bog Bothy team has been busy connecting with communities actively considering the changing role of their bogs, as well as exploring the long history of architecture in this landscape.

It also been researching the role of bothies in providing spaces for people to have deeper connectedness with nature, building links with initiatives in Scandinavia, New Zealand, and the UK.

With Clara being the first stop, 'Bog Bothy' will tour to Girley Bog, Co. Meath in August. Admission is free but booking is essential.