Botanical Skills NI: Exploring Sand Dune Botany at Murlough NR

The Botanical Skills Northern Ireland Project is holding a training session on the plant ecology of coastal sand dunes at Murlough Nature Reserve, Dundrum, Co. Down on Wednesday 15 July 2026.

Murlough supports well-developed sand dunes which clearly demonstrate the natural succession of a psammosere habitat from the embryonic dunes on the shore to the established grey dunes, each with their own unique botanical signature. This session will focus on identifying the plants indicative of the stages of dune succession. 

We will also explore the special plants at Murlough NR such as Field gentian, Blue fleabane, Carline thistle and Sticky stork’s-bill. There are several Northern Ireland Priority species at Murlough and we will discuss their ecology and identification.

The morning will consist of an indoor session in Newcastle Centre where we will discuss sand dune botany and plant ecology, and look at plant specimen identification. The afternoon will be field-based in Murlough NR focused on in-situ plant identification and studying the sand dune succession.