Mountain Ways Ireland
GEOfood Partners
My name is Brian Hoey, and I am a seventh-generation farmer. I grew up inside a magical ring of hills that surround the beautiful heather-clad Slieve Gullion Mountain. The Ring of Gullion is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but to me it’s just home.
Living on the lower slopes of Armagh’s highest mountain is where my love of nature began. I am a qualified mountain leader, geo-ambassador, tour guide, forager of wild and medicinal foods. I am also a certified community herbalist. Through my guided walks workshops and experiences, I try to awaken people to something Hippocrates said, 2,500 years ago “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,”.
I am a keen folklorist, storyteller and local historian.
One of the things that fascinates me is the co-evolution of farming and foraging, how our landscape and culture has been shaped over thousands of years from our ‘Hunter Gatherer’ ancestors right up until today.
Just this year, 2025, I was one of only a few people in Ireland to take part in in the international Wild Biome 2 project, when I lived solely off wild and foraged food for an entire month. The diet mirrors that of the pre-agricultural Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and medical data from the project will help further research into disease, nutrition and health.
Our connection to the landscape
Everything that I do, the walks, the workshop, wild food tasters and experiences are only possible because of the landscape that surrounds me. This is all underpinned by the geology because without the geology this unique Geopark landscape and culture wouldn’t exist. As an example, I run an experience where I speak about historical potato cultivation techniques, Loy digging and ‘The lazy Bed system’ – The famine and its affects. None of this would be possible without the hill farm landscape and unique historical context.
Our products
I run wild food ‘foraging’ walks, events and workshops. I teach about Plants, Fungi and Coastal i.e. Seaweeds. I also run food preservation days covering things like fermentation, herb gathering, processing etc. I also specialise in medicinal herbs.
I run unique on farm heritage experiences which are intrinsically tied in with the story of food, tracing things like the story of the cow, butter, potato cultivation and how the famine shaped my own area. As part of some experiences I process, produce and serve wild breads, jams, preserves, pesto, pickles, cordials, fermented foods of all sorts – always with wild seasonal ingredients.
99% of my raw material and ingredients are sourced as locally, ethically and sustainably as possible. Literally from the forest, coast and wild hedgerow. No air miles or plastic packaging involved!
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