Lough Neagh Gateway Exhibition

Client

Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council

Category

Exhibition design

The new Lough Neagh Visitor Centre, near Antrim Town, includes a restaurant, facilities for water sports enthusiasts, and an exhibition that brings to life the myths, legends, wildlife, and history of the largest lake in the British Isles.

The exhibition’s target audience are children aged between 6 and 11 years old. The exhibition also functions as a Key Stage 1 + 2 educational resource for school visits.

We used a modular system to construct the exhibits; this was quick to erect and cost effective. It can also easily be adapted to accommodate the addition of a VR experience in 2022.

Key to audience engagement was the use of interactive hands-on exhibits such as touch screen activated bird calls, a live feed from the torpedo platform, the motion-activated sound of a banshee, insect specs, a fishing lure diorama, post-it messages etc.

The panels focused on surprising stories about the lough: the seaplane port near Rams’ Island; the production of dynamite, 3D printed axe heads, the Miss England speedboat, the wood that becomes stone, eel migration, Libán the Lough Neagh mermaid, and, of course, Finn McCool.

The concentration and variety of interpretive topics meant that the exhibition can comfortably entertain and inform a class of up to 30.