Young people see Belfast Hills through new lens

The Belfast Hills have been seen through a different lens by young people, as part of a project to create a visual archive of the natural heritage they are home to.

The group used different cameras to explore Cave Hill, Divis and Black Mountain.

And even for those familiar with the hills, it changed their perspective.

Polly Garnett led the Belfast Photo Festival project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

“This was maybe one of the first times that I’d really been able to give people cameras and see what they were noticing,” she said.

Coming from a traveller background, the hills made her feel at home when she moved to Northern Ireland.

“I could see Cave Hill and, you know, Napoleon’s nose being such a significant landmark, it kind of made me feel more comfortable so I started going hiking and exploring them.

“And then it was really once I had my work at the Belfast Hills Partnership and working with the National Trust that I realised the kind of cultural significance that they have as well and just how special they are.

“So they mean a lot to me.”

Italian Silvia Galli has also found her place in the Hills.

As the Wild Youth Officer for the Belfast Hills Partnership, she has seen the “different views, different landscape, different habitat, different wildlife” give young people a new perspective.

“I think the hills offer a space free of all boundaries, where kids can really thrive, you know, because they’re not restricted in a building, or they’re not wearing uniforms.

“Sometimes their behaviour is so different that their personality sometimes changes when they feel like they can just walk or run without the boundaries of a building or something built by humans.”

The skull of a rabbit killed in the flames is the subject of one of Polly’s photographs in the exhibition.

Her pictures and those taken by the young people are on display outside the coffee shop on Divis Mountain.

From September, they will form a publicly accessible digital archive of natural heritage across Northern Ireland, exploring what green spaces mean to people and how they are being affected by climate change.

Ryan Nelson (23) has volunteered in the hills before but said photographing them was a “rewarding” experience.

“I feel I know a lot more. I take a lot more notice of things around, you know, like looking out for different things that maybe stand out or something I could maybe take a picture of and share.”

His photos – pretending to be in prison behind a gate, and putting sunglasses on a tree – were taken as his group travelled round the hills before meeting up with other participants at the end of the day.

“That was one of my favourite parts actually, like coming together at the end and seeing everyone else’s interpretations of how they had seen what you had seen differently.”

For Scott Montgomery (21) from Carrickfergus, it was the history of the hills that added another dimension to the experience – both human history, as fairs have been held on Cave Hill, and history on a longer time scale.

“It’s interesting from a geological point of view if you think about its formation with the caves,” he says.

“You can actually see on it the layers of where was what and what was covered in ice way back when.”

There is history of another recent sort as well.

Polly has found many prayer cards scattered across the hills during her hikes.

“And people put up a lot of, like, memory plaques and things like that, because I think people get that it’s a beautiful space.

“So it becomes really significant for people.”

That significance is something Scott hopes the photos will help convey.

“I haven’t been outside of the country much, but when I have, it makes you realise that these sort of grand green areas and all our hills and things – they’re few and far between elsewhere.

“We have to appreciate what we have and make sure we defend it.”