About the Field Club
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About the Field Club

News and Notes

Winter Lecture Programme

Summer Field Programme

Weekend Field Trips

Past Events

Links


Introduction to the Club

Founded in 1863, the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club provides an ideal focal point for both amateurs and professionals interested in the natural sciences, the built environment and their histories.

The Club has four sections - Archaeology & History, Botany, Geology and Zoology - which are open to all members. A Summer Field Programme of excursions samples the whole of Northern Ireland, not just the Belfast region, while a Winter Lecture Programme of evening talks is hosted by the Ulster Museum.

You don't need to be an 'expert' to join. The Club runs periodic introductory courses and workshops on such topics as archaeology, plant identification, lichens, mosses, economic botany, fossils, rocks, minerals, etc., as well as the regular programmes of field trips and lectures.

Every summer the Club's day and evening field trips are led by subject experts, and there is at least one full weekend excursion of general interest to a region of Ireland (and occasionally beyond). Close links are maintained with the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club and other similar organizations.

Activities

A Fungus Foray in October provides one of the main exhibits at the Annual Conversazione which also gives members an opportunity to show items of their own - photographs, sketches, specimens, etc. - for which two prizes (Junior and Senior) are awarded.

Six evening lectures are held during the winter, normally on the second Tuesday of the month, at the Ulster Museum. A special Members' Night in late spring provides an illustrated review of the previous year's Summer Programme and a look forward to the coming season. The Club's activites are recorded by the secretaries and their accounts are published each year in the Annual Proceedings. Every two years, a dinner is held (with guest speaker).

The Club also encourages original research - for example, the Urban Flora of Belfast by Stan Beesley and John Wilde (published in 1997 by the Institute of Irish Studies) was the culmination of three year's intensive recording by many dedicated members.

For information about joining the Club, contact the Honorary Secretary, Prof. Richard Clarke (Tel 028 9079 7155). The Excursion Secretary, Mrs Joan Semple, can be contacted at joan.semple@ntlworld.com.

The illustration on this page is by Club member Ann Johnston; it represents the four sections of the Club.