Tandem

Grey Abbey Visitor Centre

NIEA manage a number of key sites across two of the five Signature Projects identified by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board in 2004 – the Causeway Coastal Route and St Patrick’s Christian Heritage Trail. One of the NIEA sites included in the St Patrick’s Trail was Grey Abbey, and it was felt that the display in the visitor centre could be enhanced to further improve the visitor’s appreciation and knowledge of the Abbey and also encourage visits to other St Patrick’s Trail and NIEA sites.

We began by redefining the content and planned for the visitor centre to be divided into two distinct spaces, with one room focusing on Cistercian Monks and life in the Abbey, and the other concentrating on the work of Stone Masons and the construction of the Abbey – our main focus was to represent the many different aspects of the narrative through a layered and linear approach, which intertwines key facts and content in a connected and comprehensible way.

We produced wooden puzzles with different difficulty levels, and visitors can also take rubbings of different stone masons’ marks, and leave a permanent record of their visit by designing their own mark in the Stone Masons’ Ledger.

The Abbey stones were wall mounted alongside illustrations showing them in their original position, giving them context, and we updated the mode, producing a clear perspex casing that features a plan line drawing of the Abbey in coloured vinyl to indicate the original layout of the Abbey as well as the present day remains.

Scope

Identifying key stories

Allocating and prioritising budget to various and most appropriate delivery mechanisms

Planning space & content

Mounting of artefacts

Design of interpretation
and interactives

Lighting