Common Ground N.I.

A project combining eco-psychology /therapy, poetry, storytelling, horticulture, retreats and an educational programme on a farm in Co Fermanagh.

Common Ground - Common Ground is an education, retreat and ecotherapy centre based on a farm in Northern Ireland.

We are a multi-faceted organisation – everything we offer is rooted in nature, in the landscape of Co Fermanagh and its ecosystems. The local communities are part of those systems – we are here to serve all whilst holding an ecological perspective.

We are offering a unique combination of services including horticulture therapy, outdoor or ecotherapy, creative arts, training for professionals, and a range of eco-educational activities. We will also be working directly with the soil to teach people how to produce food. Other activities on the land and in the area will support biodiversity.


Global Vision

A world where communities everywhere cherish the environment they live in and where national laws, economic policies and educational practices reflect a heart-felt relationship to the Earth and all her inhabitants. A world where the people in these communities both know and experience themselves as intrinsically woven within the tapestry of nature.


Vision in Local Context

A Northern Ireland that leads the world to a greater awareness of how communities can honour diversity and engage in deeply connected relationships with the natural environment. This leadership will be shown by example and practice: Common Ground will create unique opportunities for people to engage with and experience a new sense of indigenous kinship that embraces religious, cultural and ethnic experiences.

Mission (essence)

Common Ground's mission is to create a space where individuals and groups from all communities can explore their relationships with the natural environment and each other.

Mission (expanded)

Common Ground is dedicated to offering the practices of ecopschyology and ecotherapy to the communities of Ireland from its unique and innovative base in County Fermanagh. Common Ground is open to the peoples of Northern and Southern Ireland, as well as to individuals and groups who are willing to travel from these islands and beyond.

Common Ground recognises that many of the challenges faced by humanity at this time are due to its relational disconnection from the ecological network that holds and sustains us. As such, its primary intention is to co-create a space within the landscape where people can come to experience the therapeutic benefits of spending focussed time in nature and reconnecting to self and environment. The activities of Common Ground will actively benefit both humanity and nature by forging synergistic relationships instead of the exploitative ones that have become the norm.

By locating itself in the Ulster countryside, Common Ground will acknowledge and work with the wounds of history that are carried by the landscape itself. Common Ground invites people to enter into a cooperative relationship with the land, to be in service to it and to recognise the way in which the land also serves us. This leads to an increased awareness of how we are all connected to each other within nature. A natural outcome of Common Ground's work is a renewed sense of kinship that transcends religious and cultural backgrounds.