Writing Workshop at Ballyscullion Park with Bernie McGill

Writing Workshop

Setting and Place

with Bernie McGill

at Ballyscullion Park, Bellaghy

Saturday, 28th February 2026

10.30am – 3.30pm with a break for lunch*

Join writer Bernie McGill for a one-day workshop at Ballyscullion Park on the beautiful shores of Lough Beg. The workshop will focus on writing about setting and place. This will be a practical and participative workshop with the aim of developing existing work or sparking new ideas. Prompts and exercises will take inspiration from the garden and surrounds.

All levels of experience are welcome from published writers to first-timers, poets and fiction writers alike. Participants will have the option to find a spot outdoors in the walled garden, weather permitting, and to write indoors in the historic 18th century stable block. Come with writing materials, prepared to write.

Bernie McGill is a novelist and short story writer and the winner of the 2023 Edge Hill Prize for her short story collection This Train is For. She is a Writing for Life Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund and an Honorary member of the Linen Hall Library in which building her writing archive is held. Her work has been widely anthologised and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. She works as a Writing Mentor with the Irish Writers’ Centre. www.berniemcgill.com

*Tea and coffee will be provided. Please bring a packed lunch.