The ECAT Bee Rocket Part 1

It Started With the Midges

Four years ago, Lorna noticed something was missing at ECAT House.

For those of you wondering who Lorna is, she’s one of the quieter members of the ECAT team. While you won’t have seen her appearing on our website or social media, she’s been part of ECAT behind the scenes from the beginning.

Anyway, back to our story. The grounds of ECAT House were still green, tidy and well cared for, but there was less life around them. Fewer insects. Fewer butterflies. The small stuff you don’t notice until it isn’t there anymore.

That included, rather surprisingly, midges.

Now, most people don’t spend much time wishing for the return of midges, but their absence made Lorna wonder what else had disappeared. So, she decided to try a simple experiment.

What happens if you just… stop?

Part of the grounds at ECAT House were allowed to grow a little wilder. There was no grand biodiversity plan. The idea was simply to give nature a bit more room.

The rest of the grounds still had to be kept immaculate, of course. As Lorna points out, if everything is left to grow wild, there is always a danger your carefully considered approach to biodiversity looks remarkably like you’ve stopped caring!

But in one area, things were allowed to change – and change they did!

First, the midgies came back; then the butterflies; then the frogs. Then, hedgehogs started to visit. And over the next four years, that small patch gradually became home to many of the wildlife Lorna knew were missing.

What started as a simple observation turned out to be a much bigger story.

Pockets of Nature

In July, the third phase of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2026-2030 was launched. The initiative is wonderfully simple: pockets of nature every 200 metres.

That distance matters because some pollinators, particularly solitary bees, don’t travel very far to find food. But by creating small areas that provide shelter, food and safety, it’s possible to connect habitats across the wider landscape and help pollinators thrive.

One of the evidence-based actions the plan recommends to businesses and landowners sounds rather familiar… mow less.

Allowing native wildflowers to emerge naturally provides important food and shelter for pollinators. You don’t need to transform acres of land or sow packets of wildflower seed, sometimes it’s just changing how you manage what’s already there.

Looking back, it made us see that corner of ECAT House rather differently.

Four years ago, nobody was trying to follow the 2026-2030 Pollinator Plan. It didn’t even exist. Lorna just knew something was missing and was curious what could happen if we gave nature the opportunity to come back.

We now know the answer… quite a lot!

But Then She Started Thinking About Bees…

Watching one small change gradually bring more life back to the grounds inevitably led to another question: ‘What else could we do?’

That’s when Lorna started looking into keeping bees. It sounded like a wonderful idea, until she discovered what beekeeping involves.

Let’s just say it wasn’t going to be a case of buying a hive and waiting for honey. In fact, the more she researched, the more Lorna realised that responsible beekeeping requires knowledge, commitment and ongoing care.

But somewhere along the way, Lorna discovered something completely different.

A conservation project inspired by ancient Irish Round Towers. A home designed specifically for wild native Irish honeybees. A hollowed tree trunk that recreates the kind of natural nesting cavity that has become increasingly difficult for them to find.

And when one eventually arrived at ECAT House, everyone took one look at it and immediately gave it a different name: