Glenravel International Furnace Festival 2024

About

Expert smelters and blacksmiths from around the world are gathering in the small mining village of Newtoncrommelin in the Antrim hills to bring traditional iron skills back to life.

Tenth Glen Heritage Farms, in partnership with the Irish Iron Heritage Foundation and Glenravel Historical Society, featuring in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council's Industrial Heritage Week and supported by Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust, are excited to welcome expert smelters and blacksmiths from North America, Europe and Africa to our little corner of the Antrim hills.

200 years ago, the founding of Newtowncrommelin village in County Antrim by Nicholas Crommelin lead to the area of Glenravel becoming the centre of iron ore mining in Northern Ireland, playing a foundational role in the industrial revolution.

Over the festival we will take mud and clay from the land around us and build Iron Age era furnaces, we will take iron ore from the Glenravel mines, smelt it with charcoal made from Irish trees, create iron and forge some traditional items. This is a traditional skill you do not get to see every day and the first time in over 100 years that iron items will have been produced from Glenravel Ore.

The 4 days will be filled with demonstrations, displays, hands on workshops (some of which require pre-booking), talks and tours paying due tribute to Glenravel's iron ore mining heritage.

Tenth Glen Heritage Farms mission is to restore and preserve the heritage of Glenravel and inspire everyone to celebrate the old ways and reimagine a sustainable future.