About
Earth and Stone: Cave Pottery is a rare, immersive pottery experience set deep within the ancient limestone chambers of the Marble Arch Caves. Working by lantern light in a landscape shaped by earth, air, and water over millennia, participants are invited to slow down, tune into the elements, and explore one of humanity's oldest crafts in a truly elemental setting.
Guided by cave textures, shifting shadows, and the quiet atmosphere of deep time, you'll hand-build a decorative (non-functional) clay vessel inspired by prehistoric pottery traditions. Using coil, slab, and pinch techniques, along with simple moulds, your piece will echo the cave's forms—stalactite ridges, carved hollows, and surfaces marked by time. Natural and coloured slips, along with earthy materials such as bog grasses, will be used to imprint texture and memory into the clay, creating a piece that feels unearthed rather than made.
The workshop is led by ceramic artist Lisa McCabe of Corranny Forest Pottery, whose practice centres on bare clay techniques and what she calls Contemporary Antiquities. Deeply rooted in material, place, and process, Lisa's work draws on ancient and archaeological ceramics, making her an ideal guide for a workshop shaped by stone, shadow, and elemental forces.
Limited to just 8 participants, the session offers a calm, supportive environment suitable for all experience levels. All materials are provided, and finished pieces will be bisque fired by Lisa and available for collection approximately two weeks after the event.
The experience begins with a guided journey through the show cave, where an expert guide shares the story of the cave's immense age and formation. Low-level lighting, lanterns, and headtorches illuminate the workshop area, encouraging a heightened visual and tactile connection to the cave environment.
More than a workshop, Earth and Stone is a meeting of material, memory, and landscape—a chance to shape earth within earth, in one of Northern Ireland's most ancient spaces.
