She was known as the Botanist of Bantry Bay.

And this weekend, the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at University College Cork is hosting a special event in honour of the pioneering Cork woman Ellen Hutchins.

Plagued by ill health, Ellen died in 1815, aged just 29, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the old Garryvurcha churchyard in Bantry.

A plaque has since been erected on the site of her grave, noting that Ellen Hutchins was a “Natural History Pioneer” and now, to mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the Ellen Hutchins Reading Room in the UCC Environmental Research Institute (ERI) is holding its first Open House in the newly renamed Ellen Hutchins Building.

Taking place on Saturday, February 11th from 10:30am to 12:30pm at the venue on the Lee Road (T23 XE10) the event will be free of charge with no registration or booking required.

There’ll be plenty of parking available too.

Open House: Discover the Ellen Hutchins Reading Room and Archives. Saturday, 11 February @eriucc, Lee Road – 10.30am-12.30pm with easy parking. Free to attend. All welcome! #WomenInScienceDay https://t.co/4hbv5M3pds pic.twitter.com/jXFKPQyysZ

— SEFS@UCC (@SEFSUCC) February 8, 2023

“Visitors are invited to drop in, see the archives, displays, and film, browse the books and have your questions answered by Ellen’s relative Madeline Hutchins, researchers and co-founder of the Ellen Hutchins Festival.” a spokesperson told us.

Don’t miss Hutchins’ beautiful seaweed specimens and a small exhibition on correspondence from the early 1800s including postage stamps and seals.

The Ellen Hutchins Archives Cabinet displays one of Ellen’s watercolour drawings of seaweed, some of her letters, books she owned, as well as botany books related to her story.