Members of Clonakilty’s expanding Flax Lín community are over the moon with their success at this year’s National Heritage Week Awards.

The community group won the Heritage at Risk Award for its interactive project about the region’s flax industry called Flax Threads of Time.

Kathy Kirwan, who masterminded the project in conjunction with Clonakilty Tidy Towns and Wombat Media, said: “It’s mind-blowing to win this award and these are new experiences for all of us involved. We have had congratulations from so many different people.”

The local celebration of the award was held as part of Samhain Festival last weekend where the flax growers organised a Scutchers Ball at O’Donovan’s Hotel, complete with handmade banners, flax snacks and a performance form Ceili Nun Bernie Smyth.

Last month, Kathy along with Michael Coghlan, Pa Minihan and Ciara Buckely attended the  heritage awards ceremony at the Royal Dublin Society’s Grand Hall.

She said: “We had great fun on the day and had four other groups on our table including West Cork Oral History Project. Michael Coughlan had made us all beautiful harvest knots from flax.”

The awards celebrate the most engaging projects and events organised during National Heritage Week in August.

The award judges concluded: “Using immersive storytelling and innovative technology, the project brought the story of flax cultivation and linen production to life while encouraging audiences to reflect on the people, places and traditions connected to this important chapter of Cork's industrial heritage.”

The award winner, Flax Threads of Time, is an immersive project exploring West Cork’s flax and linen industry through VR, documentary film, visual art and live flax demonstrations.

Guided by the voices of past workers, it brings the industry’s history to life and reconnects the audience with the people, traditions and biodiversity that shaped it.

This year’s Heritage Week in Clonakilty also saw for a guided heritage walk celebrating the town’s rich flax and linen history, including visits to local community flax growing at historic sites.

And a flax heritage event also brought the community together at West Cork Regional Museum. For future updates follow @flax_lin on Instagram.