The Dolmens Climate Action Network
The Dolmens Climate Action Network is a community initiative in South-East County Down, Northern Ireland, addressing climate change through local action.
Started in Castlewellan, it now acts as an umbrella covering multiple villages and rural areas, organizing events and projects focused on energy, food, biodiversity, and circular economy. With about 700 members, the network hosts weekly activities, runs a Repair Cafe, and lends energy efficiency kits. Dolmens has created an initiative called Dolmens Sustainable Energy Community.
They're particularly interested in developing a community energy project to make sustainable solutions more accessible and affordable, empowering locals to create and implement their own energy initiatives with expert support. The Dolmens Sustainable Energy Community is part of Metis CIC, which acts as a governing body for projects that Dolmens Climate Action Network inspires.
Project Updates
Dolmens Community Update
The Dolmens community is advancing steadily on its sustainable energy journey! Whilst actively working on procuring a consultant for their energy master plan, here are some highlights of engagements in the recent months.
November 2024 witnessed the launch of the initiative with a vibrant event featuring presentations by John Begley, Jason Henry, Eleazar Chidiadi and Professor David Rooney from Queen’s University Belfast. With 30 attendees, the event was a success, filled with group discussions, insightful feedback, and lively questions about the Sustainable Energy Communities NI project.
In December 2024, Michael Donnelly facilitated a strategic two-hour meeting focused on developing community engagement approaches for the project, with John from the SEC Team and several familiar participants in attendance. The collaborative session, accompanied by refreshments including tea, coffee, mince pies, and mulled wine, involved dividing attendees into three working groups to explore community engagement strategies. Participants actively contributed their insights, which were documented on wall-mounted notes and fell into three primary focus areas
- basic energy-saving advice with minimal or no cost
- retrofit recommendations
- guidance on larger-scale community energy generation projects
In January 2025, a strategic meeting took place at Michael's residence, featuring Jason from the SEC Team to strategize upcoming project initiatives. The discussion centred on exploring a potential large-scale renewable energy project, with the group demonstrating comprehensive interest across multiple sustainable energy sources including solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal technologies. The participants expressed enthusiasm for examining relevant case studies and exploring the possibility of establishing an energy co-operative, with plans to engage further.
In March 2025, The Dolmens SEC conducted a public engagement meeting at the Burrendale Hotel in Newcastle to address the aftermath of Storm Eowyn, with the community members in attendance. The event provided a collaborative platform for participants, including Jason Henry from the SEC team, to share personal survival stories, practical tips, and community resilience strategies. Michael Donnelly contributed to the session by distributing the local council's Household Emergency Life Saving Plan, a 2014 document that, despite its age, offered valuable insights and preparedness recommendations for future storm events. Participants engaged in meaningful discussions, exchanging recipes, survival techniques, and collective experiences to strengthen community readiness in the face of severe weather challenges. More events from The Dolmens in the coming months, get connected, get planning!
In April 2025, the Dolmens team hosted a public engagement meeting at the Burrendale Hotel, Newcastle highlighting the use of Solar Panels. It had a very good turn out with 40 in attendance. The Dolmens team highlighted the use of flyers/posters around the area into shops etc had help to boost the awareness of the event along with the usual social media platforms. Elkie from Advice NI Comms team had helped to design the flyers/posters and got them printed out for the event.
The guest speaker was David Maze, Senior Project Manager from Action Renewables. He provided a short but informative presentations on solar panels.
After this the floor was opened to questions to David, to which the attendance had a lot of information that they wanted to find out. It was apparent that there was a keen interest in the area of solar panels for both homes and businesses.
It was a good evening of chat with people sharing their experiences and it felt like people got a lot out of the event. Very enjoyable evening in a relaxed/informal format.
Outreach Clinics in Dolmens
The Advice NI outreach clinics are now active in the Dolmens area! Kellie Murray from Community Advice Newry Mourne & Down is hosting 12 sessions throughout 2025, one every first Wednesday of each month, at the MyMy Centre in Newcastle. These clinics will offer crucial support to residents. For more information, contact Kellie at [email protected].
The strong turnout at these meetings and the launch of the outreach clinics highlights Dolmens’ enthusiasm for sustainable energy initiatives. We’re excited to see where this journey takes them!