https://cuilcaghlakelands.org/news-item/cuilcagh-lakelands-geopark-plays-host-to-unmasking-nature-event/
Cavan Burren Park, Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark
10th September 2025
Sensory walking event co-created by a community of cross-border neurodivergent collaborators, led by artist Alan James Burns with Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics, Dublin City University.
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Come, stim with nature: touch grass, hum to the rhythm of dappled light, eat dirt. Trust your senses.
Awash with texture and tiny details, Unmasking Nature’s guided geopark experience is shaped by sensory cues, rather than traditional mapping techniques. This bold, original project is a permission slip to step away from societal systems that cage us.
All are invited to Unmasking Nature’s once-off, free event exploring joyful ways of engaging with the natural world. Co-designed with neurodivergent people who came together as a community over several months, the walk route takes inspiration from their special interests, and is created with disabled participants in mind. Opportunities to experience their creative responses to the site include “deep dive” information points, in addition to the insights of professionals and experts in the areas of fungi, food foraging and biophilia.
At its core, Unmasking Nature asks, “What does it mean to be neurodivergent in nature?”. Across this event we celebrate people’s connection to nature through stimming and emotional cartography. By embracing feel-good, intuitive explorations to the geopark’s deeply interconnected sensory landscape, the project invites event participants to engage with themes such as biodiversity and more-than-human communication (including with plants, animals and inanimate elements) through an inclusive, neurodivergent lens.
“As a neurodivergent artist, I see first-hand the power of thinking differently. It’s through imagination, creativity and coming together as a community that we can shape a more inclusive and sustainable future”
Alan James Burns, Lead Artist, ‘Unmasking Nature’
Photograph taken during a site visit to the Cavan Burren Park as part of ‘Unmasking Nature’ group workshops.
Image credit: Sheila Rooney
Unmasking Nature: bringing together neurodivergent communities, the profound healing potential of the natural world and environmental awareness
Our society, which often demands conformity, causes many people to mask their true selves. Nature offers radical relief: acceptance without judgment and unconditional belonging. Neurodivergence and biodiversity can both thrive with the freedom to grow. Every tangle of roots, mossy stone and blooming Dandelion is not just a biodiversity success signal, but a metaphor for the vibrancy of neurodiversity.
One of the ways this project embraces both aspects is by foraging for senses. Being free from the need to mask or adapt to neurotypical expectations supports sensory regulation and boosts calmness and creativity. During the Unmasking Nature event, together we will explore how natural environments proffer a sense of ease and belonging within them. Participants are urged to open themselves up to what’s often overlooked, to experience nature’s richness from a different vantage point, and to break free from the confining patterns that shape how we sense, move and feel our way through the world.
Unmasking Nature looks beneath moss and mulch to acknowledge our world that is full of small and mighty forms, where sinkholes are not dead spaces, but connected wells of creativity and resilience. The project challenges us to reconsider biases that favour the visible and the normative; it’s a call to embrace difference as essential to the fabric of life.
Through immersive experiences and moments of soft fascination, Unmasking Nature encourages us all to arrive with a curious outlook, and leave with a renewed sense of connection to the varied, beautiful ways that minds can move through the world.
Event location and essential info
We are delighted to collaborate with the Cavan Burren Park at Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark which spans the border between Cavan County Council and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council. It features unique geological formations, rich biodiversity, cultural heritage sites, and promotes conservation, education and sustainable tourism. This location has significantly influenced the development of Unmasking Nature, which is rooted in lived experience, sensory regulation and the deep, brain-massaging focus of neurodivergent passions.
Where: Cavan Burren Park, Blacklion, Co. Cavan, Google Maps location
When: Wednesday 10th September 2025
Arrive at 5:30pm, Event starts at 6pm
Duration: 50 minutes approximately. Participants can partake at their own pace.
Free event, booking required: Sign-up form
Food and drinks: Light refreshments provided
Accessibility: Accessibility is a priority for us. This event includes:
Check out our website for access information: Unmasking Nature website
Please let us know when booking if you require any other accessibility accommodations.
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Divergently Together
‘Unmasking Nature’ is organised by Divergently Together, an ongoing shared-island community engagement project. Divergently Together events use STEM technologies to facilitate disabled and neurodivergent communities to participate in climate action.
A key issue of our time, climate change disproportionately affects disabled communities. Lack of accessible information, physical vulnerabilities in extreme weather events, increased sensitivity in heat waves due to the effects of medications, and lack of access funding for climate action projects, are but a few examples of eco-ableism frequently incurred by disabled people. Divergently Together advocates for a just transition, and breaks down stigmas by highlighting that people with lived experience of disability often possess vital skills and characteristics that could greatly enhance climate mitigation strategies. These include resilience, resourcefulness, specialised knowledge and creative, non-linear thinking. However, they remain largely excluded from climate action efforts.
Collaboration and community-building
Divergently Together unites cross-border communities of neurodivergent individuals who hold connections to Cavan, Fermanagh and Omagh. Led by artist AlanJames Burns with the Divergently Together team and co-created with local collaborators Christopher David Schuette, Ciara O’Conor Walsh, Clare Martyn, Julie Anna Richmond, Lorraine Montague, Michelle Harton and Niamh Mc Philips, through creative workshops and discussions, participants co-design responses to the climate emergency from their own neurodivergent experiences and perspectives. The wider Divergently Together community includes climate action teams within Cavan County Council and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, as well as Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark, the Geopark Regenerative Tourism Business Network and Geopark Ambassadors. The Geopark, which spans the North/ South border region and actively supports the project, aligns with our goals of accessibility and inclusivity. Together, we aim to strengthen skills and knowledge, and cultivate a collaborative understanding of neurodiversity and climate action.
Divergently Together bridges the gap between diverse communities affected by climate change and local authorities who shape policy. By working directly with neurodivergent participants and policymakers, the project builds mutual understanding and equips decision-makers with tools for accessible, inclusive communication. This collaboration ensures climate strategies are grounded in lived experience and better reflect the needs of as many people as possible. Ultimately, Divergently Together aims to embed neurodivergent voices in climate action and leave a lasting impact.
Future event
On 1st October 2025, Divergently Together hosts ‘Accessible Communication as a Skillful and Creative Practice’, a workshop day for public sector workers and policymakers to rethink accessibility as a powerful creative skill that strengthens engagement with diverse communities. The event brings together neurodivergent participants, expert facilitators and government representatives to co-develop inclusive communication strategies vital for a just climate transition.
Project funders and supporters
Divergently Together is funded by:
The project is led by artist AlanJames Burns in collaboration with Dublin City University, Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics, supported by Cavan County Council, Fermanagh & Omagh District Council and Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark.
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This is a cooperation project between Fermanagh and Omagh District Council and Cavan County Council.
This element of the project is part funded under Priority 6 (LEADER) of the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and the European Union. We would like to acknowledge the assistance of County Cavan Local Community Development Committee (LCDC), Cavan County Council, Breffni Integrated CLG, Department of Rural and Community Development, the EU and EAFRD in part-funding this project. Funded by the Irish Government Under the Leader Programme 2014-2020.
