‘WE’RE SHARING OUR LOVE OF THE GREAT OUTDOORS’

Four organisation leaders tell us about their passion for nature and how they are making a difference

‘Nature is there for everyone to enjoy’

Hilary Mcgrady is director general of the National Trust, which is probably best known for protecting buildings, but it is also working hard for the environment, as she explains.

Our home in Northern Ireland backed on to fields that stretched out towards quarry land and the Belfast Hills. There were around 10 children in our local family circle who all played together. I was the youngest, which meant I was a bit of a nuisance and often left behind. As a result, I learned to find my own entertainment from an early age. With my golden retriever, Shadow, I would spend hours roaming the fields and up into the mountains, fascinated by the world around me.

I grew up during the Troubles, at a time when the National Trust kept its head down in Northern Ireland. It was deemed an English organisation back then, quite old school and formal. The first I heard of it was on a school trip aged 13 to one of its properties, Mount Stewart, to see an art collection. I adored art, and remember walking in and being swept away by the beauty of the place. The National Trust combined my two loves – the outdoors and art – so it felt like a role there had my name on it.

However, it would be a long time coming. I got into Queen’s University to study law, but decided to go to art college instead, where I studied graphic design. There, I met my husband, Frank. I’m from a Protestant upbringing and Frank is Catholic. It took around four years for us to meet each other’s families. It felt very daunting for me to even step into his area. Thankfully, our families did accept our choice, and Frank remains the great love of my life.

I worked in marketing for more than 10 years, before becoming director of a small charity that worked with businesses to support the arts. In 2005, I joined the National Trust as regional director for Northern Ireland. My proudest achievement was overseeing the development of the visitor centre at the Giant’s Causeway, an £18m project that led to more than a million people visiting in 2019.

I became director general in 2018. Spearheading an organisation that has been around for 125 years is a big responsibility, and I need to make sure that we continue to move forward, despite the setbacks of the pandemic, with our ambitions around conserving our heritage and protecting nature, as well as inspiring our 10,000-strong team. Our charitable purpose is to look after our places for ever, for the benefit of the nation. I love that we’re completely focused on that, and that we look after our amazing environment.

A lot of what I do is finding ways to make our places more interesting for more people, so they come back again and again. We also want to look after biodiversity and help combat climate change. We want to plant 20m trees, and we’re putting more focus on creating urban green corridors to give more people in highly populated areas access to green space.

The pandemic has been a very scary time for the trust. We are a charity and membership makes up about 40% of our income. As well as being unable to recruit members and visitors as we do each year, we have lost £111m revenue from our shops and catering; stopped or paused £124m worth of projects; and sadly have had to make around 1,300 redundancies. As a leader, that has been the worst thing. In 2021, our income is likely to fall by about £100m. For a while, I was genuinely terrified I might be the director who oversaw the demise of the National Trust.

Thankfully, we will pull through, due to a lot of work from the very start of the pandemic. And when we could open some of the gardens and grounds again between lockdowns, we saw numbers double at some of our outdoor places, showing people are desperate to connect with the outdoors.

Nature is there for everyone to enjoy. I cannot say the National Trust’s staff and membership base is as diverse as I would like it to be, and we have come under scrutiny for that, but that’s a massive challenge I’m determined to tackle. I want to remove barriers to ensure that everyone feels welcome at our places. Ultimately, we are here for everyone. And in years to come, I believe the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland will need us more than ever.

• Find out more at nationaltrust.org.uk

People are desperate to connect with the outdoors