Feile na gCloch – Festival of Stone – opens on Inis Oirr, the smallest of Ireland's Aran Islands, on the evening of Thursday 18 September. It lasts until Sunday 21 September.

The event is organised by Marie Mannion, Heritage Officer of Galway County Council, and Paddy Crowe, manager of the island co-operative.

The event is supported by the Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland, which will run a workshop entailing the building of a single wedged type wall native to the island. Pat McAfee and Inis Oirr dry stone waller Padraig Poll will run the workshop.

There will be a stone carving workshop with Alexandra Morosco, a sculptor from Washington state, USA, and director of the annual Stonefest there.

A letter carving workshop will take place with Karin Sprague of Rhode Island, USA.

Tom Little, a well known Irish lettercarver, will also participate and give a talk on 'Michael Biggs and contemporary Irish lettercarving' on Friday evening.

On Saturday night there is a talk by Frédérique Mahieu entitled 'Menorcan Barraques and the Lithica Dry Stone Wall Space Project'.

On the Sunday morning a walk around the island is planned to look at the flora and fauna on the farms of Inis Oirr with Dr Patrick McGurn and Dr Amanda Brown of AranLIFE.

Previous events have been a great success because of the work, camaraderie and the friendliness and support of the islanders and the fun and social life experienced there and the workshops usually fill fast.

This is only a brief synopsis of the event and further information with booking forms etc can be obtained from: Gráinne Smyth at Galway County Council. Tel: 00353 91 509121. gsmyth@galwaycoco.ie