Loughries Men's Shed

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Loughries Men's Shed is a Newtownards based community group - established to develop a community space, mainly for (older) men to connect, converse, create and to have fun together.

15/06/2026

Loughries Men’s Shed – New Ukulele Tune.

As we have been invited to play for the 1st time, - in a local Bar/Restaurant (Wildfowler Inn Greyabbey), we’ve been trying out a new tune or two.

So this is only the 2nd week of practicing ‘Katie Daley’ and although we had a number of men missing tonight we are happy with the tunes progress – it was written in the early 60’s and recorded by quite a few artists, however this is our interpretation.

A little fine tuning needed but we think it’s good to go for the Wildfowler Event on Friday 26th June 2026.

Thanks to Amanda for recording the video !

Thanks for looking in……..

Loughries Men’s Shed - Ukulele Outing.Folks, over recent weeks we have been inundated with invitations to perform at man...
09/06/2026

Loughries Men’s Shed - Ukulele Outing.

Folks, over recent weeks we have been inundated with invitations to perform at many diverse places between now and spring 2027 and to be honest I’m not sure that we can fit them all in!

However, we are going to do a 1st later this month - we have been invited to play at our first Bar - Restaurant performance and its at The Wildfowler Inn, Main Street, Greyabbey, on Friday 26th June 2026 between 7pm and 10pm.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ZJTm5aQ5s/?mibextid=wwXIfr

So, if you haven’t seen or heard us play live, here is a unique opportunity to have a meal and a couple of drinks and a sing-a-long with Loughries Men’s Shed Ukulele Ensemble!

Book early to avoid disappointment..... see you there!

Loughries Men's Shed - Planters for sale.Some of our men under the supervision of Stephen, have designed and made some i...
06/06/2026

Loughries Men's Shed - Planters for sale.

Some of our men under the supervision of Stephen, have designed and made some items, this time its Scrabo Planters.

The planters are made from treated fence boards with the iconic local landmark of Scrabo Tower laster cut on the front of the planter withe the planters finished with antique oak preserve. They have been designed so that a square plastic planter will fit inside (available from Walkers N'Ards) therefore preserving the wood for long life.

If you are interested in purchasing one please drop me a message - these are locally made and hopefully locally sold. Arrangements can be made for collection or local delivery.

Oops, there are only 3 available at this time.

Thanks for looking in!

All 3 have been sold - more will be made soon !

03/06/2026

King Charles enjoyed meeting and playing along with us ♥️!

Loughries Men’s Shed – Kings Visit!Folks, sometimes typing out Facebook posts are quite mundane, but when the title is K...
22/05/2026

Loughries Men’s Shed – Kings Visit!

Folks, sometimes typing out Facebook posts are quite mundane, but when the title is Kings Visit it is quite surreal.

Thursday 21st May 2026 will live long in the memory of our members both the Men’s Shed and the Ukulele group, when we hosted His Majesty King Charles III to our Allotment. He was on a 3 day to Northern Ireland and on his schedule was a visit to Ards Allotments, where we have our allotment.

We were asked to provide some musical entertainment during the Kings visit – so we set up our 2 gazebo’s just outside our allotment, played a few warm-up tunes and awaited the arrival of King Charles.

As the King approached we played a local folk song The Fishermen of Co. Down, and Mark offered him a chance to play the ukulele, and we were delighted that he took up the offer. With the worlds press in attendance he strummed along with us, you could tell that he was thoroughly enjoying himself as he stayed a lot longer than anticipated.

The King then went into our allotment to be met by Stephen and other members of the men’s shed where he inspected our vegetable beds and other parts of the shed etc. As the King left the men shouted 3 cheers for His Majesty The King whilst raising our ukuleles high in the air – he was absolutely delighted, he gave us a big smile and a wave as he headed off to his next engagement.

It was a fantastic morning, and very unexpected. We could never have imagined that when we set-up our allotment in 2021 and ukulele group in 2023 that we would host King Charles III – quite incredible really! It is of course great recognition for our Men’s Shed and the work we do in the local community, but also the promotion of Men’s Sheds, Allotments and of course the Ukulele instrument and those groups who play and sing together.

Here are just a few images of the day – there are many video’s on social media and You Tube just search King Charles Ukulele and follow the links…… enjoy our photo’s.

Thanks to Gary ’Spike’ Anderson for the photographs.

Thanks for looking in……..

Loughries Men’s Shed – Community Outreach.Back on 9th April 2026 we at LMS, as part of our community outreach, welcomed ...
14/05/2026

Loughries Men’s Shed – Community Outreach.

Back on 9th April 2026 we at LMS, as part of our community outreach, welcomed a group from Bayview Day Centre, (ELDS) Bangor to our shed and allotment. This group had visited us previously in 2024 and 2025 - they enjoy visiting us and we equally enjoy hosting them.

After the group officially opened the new greenhouse they sowed a selection of sunflowers, hoping they would grow into huge sunflowers later in the summer.

We had planned to welcome back the ELDS group from Bayview today 14th May, but the weather has been too changeable – unseasonal strong winds, blowing from the north, bringing cold air and squally showers, so a decision was made to take the sunflowers etc to Bayview Day Centre to pot them on there.

So, one of our volunteers visited the group with well established sunflowers (around 18 inches in height) with compost, pots, support canes, bamboo canes (for later in growing period) and Velcro strips.

It was a very enjoyable morning with the group really enjoying getting their hands into the compost and repotting their lovely sunflowers. Now they are under strict instructions to keep watering the sunflowers and watch them grow each week.

When the weather improves and gets a bit warmer and calmer the group intend to visit the allotment for a picnic and to harvest some of our vegetables.

Thanks to Emma and her team – it was a great morning.

Thanks for looking in…….

Loughries Men’s Shed - Sunday Fry!Occasionally the men who attend the allotment regularly get together on a Sunday morni...
03/05/2026

Loughries Men’s Shed - Sunday Fry!

Occasionally the men who attend the allotment regularly get together on a Sunday morning to enjoy a breakfast together, so this morning Sunday 3rd May it was breakfast time!

Billy’s Big Breakfast - our resident chef Billy Tate served up an excellent fry consisting of sausages, bacon, eggs, soda bread and potato bread, with tea, coffee and pure orange.

The men shared a few stories and jokes whilst planning a few upcoming events and projects whilst also discussing this years growing season. It was a very enjoyable get together.

Thanks for looking in………..

27/04/2026

Loughries Men’s Shed - Ukulele Practice.

Monday is ukulele practice and this evening we had a great turnout of men who enjoyed great fellowship together playing through our songbook - with the occasional joke thrown in from our resident comedian Billy T.

We’ve been working on a few new pieces - so here is one of them..... a song from way back in the 1960’s, a big pop/rock/folk hit recorded from the Beach Boys - Sloop John B.

We may add a harmonica at a later date but here it is from our practice tonight - thanks for looking in..........

20/04/2026

Loughries Men’s Shed - New Ukulele Tune!

So after the Easter break, it was back to our usual Monday evening practice. Good turn out of men this evening, with only a couple of men unable to make it.

So, just before Easter we introduced a new tune - we have been invited to play at a local maritime festival in a local village in August, therefore we have been looking at a few suitable tunes that we could include in our performance.

Our latest addition is the very well know piece ‘What Will We Do With The Drunken Sailor’ - the men made a good effort tonight and after a few more practices it should ready for August.

Thanks for looking in........

17/04/2026

Last one ! As we were at a local Church we played several well known Hymns, so here is What a Friend we Have in Jesus.

Thanks for viewing !

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Newtownards Town Centre
Newtownards
BT234QS

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