Living Landscape

"It is our vision that we will restore, both physically and in the minds of our people, the Belfast Hills as a vital living asset for Belfast and beyond, an asset to actively enjoy, gain inspiration from and protect as a living part of our Belfast and Lagan Valley region."

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced support of £1.2million for the Belfast Hills through HLF's Landscape Partnership (LP) programme.

The LP programme helps to protect some of our most treasured landscapes by acting as a catalyst to bring communities and organisations together to form partnerships that create a shared vision and help implement local action for the conservation and management of our landscape heritage. 

The scheme contains a portfolio of projects that provide long term social, economic and environmental benefits for the areas. 

The initial stage of the Landscape Partnership Scheme involves drawing up plans and obtaining match funding. Work on the ground should start by 2012.

Jim Bradley, Manager of the Belfast Hills Partnership said: "This is a wonderful boost for the Belfast Hills and is the culmination of a great deal of work and effort by our Partnership to secure the major funding that's required for the Belfast Hills area. At a time when many organisations - including our own - are having major core funding cuts, it is a great boost to secure vital project funding and be able to put the hills on the map in terms of its heritage, landscape and also local employment. We are delighted to be taking this project into the future."