Holywood Co Farm is a community-led food project run by volunteers. You can sign up to volunteer with the Co Farm on their website.
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co farm at the ulster folk museum
The Holywood Co Farm has landed at the Ballydugan field at the Ulster Folk Museum!
Holywood Co Farm opens at the Ulster Folk Museum.
The Holywood Co Farm - a volunteer-led community project - is growing vegetables in the field by Ballydugan Weavers House (Map Location: Rural 'Field' Area, 39).
In spring 2025, Co Farm volunteers laid out beds and paths with the help of a vintage Ferguson tractor, and spread lime, a traditional way of reducing soil acidity.
In this first year of the project, the Co Farm have been growing everything from peas, leeks and onions to Swiss chard and squashes. There are echoes of tradition in how they work and what they grow, but also some things you wouldn’t have seen on a farm a century ago. You may see sunflowers that help break up the ground and colourful green manures which attract pollinators and fix nitrogen in the soil.
The Holywood Co Farm is trialling 'no-dig'. A thick layer of compost will be laid on the beds so that soil organisms that support growth are not disturbed, less weeding will be needed and there’ll be greater productivity. Inside the hedge by the lane, you can see where they’ve created compost bins using recycled wood.
At the Ulster Folk Museum, we support partnerships that make a difference for the environment and heritage. Our Co Farm volunteers are taking their own small steps in promoting health and wellbeing and protecting our environment, by growing and sharing food locally, growing a community, and showing how regenerative agriculture works.
Take a look and chat to the Co Farmers when the gate is open, usually on a Saturday during the growing season. And if you’d like to join in, you can sign up to volunteer through their website holywoodcofarm.co.uk
What's growing at the Co Farm?
Find out more about the Holywood Co Farm
The Holywood CoFarmers work together to produce fruit and vegetables for sharing within the Holywood area.
The Holywood CoFarmers believe that how we currently grow food, and what food we eat, have contributed to nature and climate emergencies, resulting in poor health for people. Through the Co Farm, they aim to bring people together, support a fair local food system, promote health and wellbeing and take a step towards the radical changes needed to tackle the climate crisis.