Chris Murphy

Originally from Liverpool, Chris now lives on the Lecale coast in County Down where the beam of St John's Point lighthouse sweeps over his garden. He crossed the sea in the 1980s to work for the RSPB, partly in penance for his Irish forefathers - dealers in game and poultry. He now combines running an ecology and travel consultancy with writing for the Irish News. A 12-month overland trip to India and Nepal culminated in meeting Doris, his future wife, on a fabulous sewage farm in Munich! Co-founder of more than a dozen nature conservation bodies including the Oriental Bird Club, Northern Ireland Bat Group and Lecale Conservationists, and a long-serving member of the NI Records Committee, Chris is a world authority on Irish woodpeckers. He leads trips to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.