A number of pre-Famine bothys are being restored and rebuilt in Co Mayo, as part of a new heritage initiative.
The structures in the Wild Nephin National Park will be made available to visitors, who will be able rest or stay overnight in the buildings.
The initiative was launched at an event at one of the cottages today.
Overseen by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the structures offer hikers, photographers or leisure travellers a place to shelter.
One of the cottages has been rebuilt on the exact location where a local family lived, prior to their deaths during the Famine.
The McCanns homeplace has been restored by a team of locals, who have painstakingly recreated a cottage on the exact footprint of the original building.
It is one of a number of bothys dotted around the park, which will be made freely available to people exploring the wild and wonderful landscape in that part of Co Mayo.
People visiting this park can access the cottages on a trust basis.
The cottages are unfurnished and have no running water or electricity.
Denis Strong, Divisional Manager with the NPWS, said they offer visitors a chance to experience life as it was for our ancestors, in the middle of an area of striking natural beauty.
Details of the initiative came as a twinning agreement between the Wild Nephin National Park and Yosemite Park in the US was announced.
Minister of State at the Department of Heritage Malcolm Noonan said it would lead to closer links, the sharing of information and an enhanced effort to safeguard and protect the natural environment.
