Blog
BLP Ventures to Millport!
Mon, 23rd May 2022Last week Young People from our Castle Douglas project headed out for an overnight trip to Millport’s Field Studies Council.
Millport’s Field Studies Council is located on the Isle of Cumbrae with a long history of researching marine life in the local area and offers groups of all ages and abilities opportunities for outdoor learning. We were delighted to be able to take a group of young people on this trip as part of their environmental course, supported by The Holywood Trust. On the first day, the team headed up there by minibus for a quick ferry trip before getting to the centre. There we met our wonderful team leader Jenny who guided our group through a variety of sessions on Climate Change and Sustainability.
The first of these sessions was busting Climate Change Myths, which we followed with a trip into Millport to see how local the food being sold in the shops was and assess how many miles our food travels to reach our plates. After a tasty dinner in the centre, Jenny then led the group in creating their own small mammal hotels which we placed around the ground of Millport FSC so we could investigate the small mammal population. After our traps were set (with plenty of food, water, and bedding!) the group separated for the evening with some enjoying a quiet night in the games room playing snooker, while the others headed back out to Millport to do some fishing!
The next day we headed out early to check our mammal hotels and the group was delighted to have found 5 mice sleeping in their burrows of hay. We released to mice and Jenny sent the successful findings of our study to The Mammal Society. Next, the group headed back to the beach for a clean-up of the shores and with magnifying glasses and sieves to investigate microplastic pollution in our oceans. We were shocked about the amount of rubbish and tiny pieces of plastic ingrained in the sand and spent some time discussing how we could reduce our use of microplastics to help protect our oceans!
Finally, before heading home we had a quick look inside FSC Millport’s catch and release Aquarium, which replicated a number of the aquatic environments found on the shores of the Isle of Cumbrae. Jenny took the time to introduce us to some of the aquarium’s temporary residents and we got the chance to hold live Sea Urchins and a Sun Starfish.
We had an action-packed few days in Millport and would like to thank Jenny for being such a wonderful leader and ensuring we had such a good time! We would also like to thank Youth Work D&G for helping support this trip by granting us 10,000 Voices in Action Funding.
Check out the video of our trip on our YouTube: (1) Millport Trip (2022) – YouTube
