McClair Project

This project is named after an Irishman, who came many years ago to present-day Ukraine and, doing so, was the first one who implemented concepts of landscape gardening by designing more than 50 parks in Volyn and Podilia regions. His name was Denys McClair (1762-1853).

In Ireland, his homeland, McClair is mostly forgotten, but now many people got to know about him from us; in Ukraine his cultural heritage is still present, but mainly in academic circles and among well prepared tourist guides. In the city of Rivne a street is named after him.

For us McClair is a unique person, who can be seen as bridge builder between West and East, Ireland and Ukraine.

We want to create a community of creative people (landscape designers, botanists, creative industry, and public authorities, etc.) to strengthen relations between the two countries and to initiate projects, which will help to develop rural areas of Ukraine. McClair will be the “face” for this movement, and could become even a brand for the region and an engine for tourist destination development.

An Irish-Ukrainian working group has been established with our outstanding partners: National Botanic Gardens of Ireland, Garden and Landscape Designers Association of Ireland (GLDA), Westmeath County Council, Kremenets Botanic Garden, Dubno Castle Administration, National University of Water and Environmental Management (Rivne) among others.

We want to foster cooperation between stakeholders of landscape design, creative economy and active citizens in Ireland and Ukraine. Moreover, McClair can be become a bridge builder and common background creator for future bilateral cooperation in other fields.