Bumblebees and butterflies set to benefit from £100,000 pollinator garden

Date published: 31 May 2022

Magheralin Church of Ireland has won a £100,000 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award, Environment Minister Edwin Poots has announced.

The award is a single one-off grant to a rural community organisation to create a pollinator garden to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Magheralin Parish, Craigavon, will create a ‘Garden of Reflection’ in their parish grounds which will be open to all members of the public.

Speaking at the site where the garden will be created, Minister Poots said: “I am pleased to announce that Magheralin Parish has been awarded the £100,000 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award. The Jubilee Garden of Reflection they will create with this fund will attract bees, butterflies, wasps and moths to help pollinate the local flowers and garden life. The garden also of course, has the added benefit of being a wonderful space for the local community to enjoy nature and the visiting wildlife.

“The encouragement of pollinators benefits us all and is particularly important for the food chain, so anything that increases the habitat for pollinators is to be welcomed. This along with the Rural Community Pollinator and Schools Pollinator Schemes brought forward by my Department, have seen over £3million invested in encouraging our pollinators across Northern Ireland.

“Magheralin Parish will develop an area of wasteland at the back of the church to include native and ornamental trees, wild flowers and flowerbeds, there will also be seating areas with paths woven through the garden to connect the various areas. There will be mirrored surfaces, sculptures and reflective thoughts included throughout the area.

“The creation of a large scale pollinator garden is a unique way of marking the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”

Lynda Surgenor, Live Here Love Here coordinator, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said: “It has been so exciting to be involved in facilitating the various pollinator grants which are helping transform communities and their understanding of biodiversity recovery. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing this marvellous Platinum Jubilee pollinator garden take shape and congratulate Magheralin Parish on their inspiring application.”

The rector of Magheralin Parish, Rev Simon Genoe, commented: “A well-known writer, David Wilkerson, said the essence of Christianity is transformation.  It gives us great pleasure as a Christian community to see an area of wilderness in our village transformed into a beautiful place, but also to welcome the whole community into an area where they can reflect and be renewed.”

Download more details on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award.

Notes to editors: 

  1. Photo caption:  Environment Minister Edwin Poots visited Magheralin Parish to congratulate them on winning the £100,000 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pollinator Garden Award.  He is pictured with Saoirse Williams, St Patrick’s Primary School, Magheralin, Judith Kinnen, Magheralin Parish and Elizabeth McClimond, Maralin Primary School.
  2. Applications for the award were launched by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in March 2022.
  3. Follow DAERA on Twitter at and Facebook.
  4. All media queries should be directed to the DAERA Press Office: pressoffice.group@daera-ni.gov.uk
  5. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours’ service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

Share this page

Back to top