A Sense of Place
PLACEWAYS Workshops
Creative Places Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon
In April 2024, Anna facilitated a series of free public workshops in Ballaghaderreen that extended themes emerging from the PLACEWAYS walks.
Hosted at the Family Resource Centre on Saint John’s Terrace and at the Shambles on Market Street, the sessions invited participants to explore past, present and future relationships with place through sensory awareness, reflection and shared expression.
The workshops were open to everyone. No previous involvement in the walks, and no artistic background was required.
Approach
Participants were introduced to a range of sense-based practices including guided visualisation, reflective inquiry and storytelling. Working with natural materials respectfully gathered from the local environment, the group explored how memory, association and feeling are carried through touch, scent, sound and image.
Simple encounters opened complex layers. A branch or fragment of plant life prompted conversations about season, change and return. Smell evoked distant times. Texture suggested continuity between body and landscape.
Following each sensory exploration, participants responded in their own ways. Some wrote or drew. Others spoke or chose silent integration. Every mode of participation was valued equally.
All photos by Anna King
Shared Reflection
Attention moved between individual experience and collective meaning. The group considered how everyday surroundings hold multiple histories and how personal memories intersect with wider narratives.
By the end of the sessions, place was understood not as static backdrop, but as something animated through relationship.
Significance within PLACEWAYS
These workshops formed part of Anna’s residency with Creative Places Ballaghaderreen. They created an indoor, concentrated counterpart to the outdoor walks, enabling deeper exploration of perception, belonging and imagination.
The methods tested here later informed the development of LifeWays and continue to shape Anna’s participatory practice.
Bog Cotton. We reflected upon the storied-landscape from which the items were found.
We enjoyed the aroma of seasonally foraged petals, and considered how certain smells are associated with memory.
The hawthorn (or May tree), with its delicate spring flowers, vibrant red autumn berries and wintery gnarled branches, remains an important part of Irish folklore and Celtic tradition.