Our mission is to support and enable anyone working in culture, heritage and landscapes to understand and develop their work, drawing from our rich and varied experiences.
Eagle & Oak
Hello.
Across four corners of England (and six months in the Middle East) and over twenty five years we’ve been lucky to work with places of immense beauty, fascination and popularity. There have been gardens, houses, galleries, museums, coastline, parklands, villages, woodlands, a railway and even an island. Some have been occupied since the Bronze Age, others were established in living memory.
Eagle & Oak’s founder, Jon O’Donoghue has worked as a conservation assistant, a guide, an assistant head gardener, a visitor experience and marketing manager, an operations manager, a head of public engagement, an analyst, a project manager, a commercial director and a lead trainer in museum development. As well as his consultancy work, he is also a trustee of the Museum of the Home in London, and chair of the museum's commercial development committee as a non-executive-director. He has collaborated with a range of professionals with overlapping and further experience - and these people form the wider Eagle & Oak family.
Each of the places Jon has worked with has had a particular combination of problems and opportunities, and his work has been to help them grow. This might be in profitability, in appeal, in researching new stories, in standards of conservation or in efficiency. The foundation for any growth has been understanding the distinctiveness of each place - its stories, its challenges, its richness. There’s always something, however intangible, which is the seed for sustainable growth.
Eagle & Oak treats places authentically, builds sustainability and applies creativity - as well as inspiring it in others. It’s an opportunity for Eagle & Oak consultants to work with even more places, to keep them special well into the future.
The story so far…
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![Eagle and Oak Consultant Jon O'Donoghue with the Gingerbread Town Christmas Experience at The Auckland Project]()
The Auckland Project, County Durham
A regeneration charity using visitor attractions to bring prosperity to the town of Bishop Auckland. Art galleries, gardens, restaurants, cafés, shops and events, oh - and a railway too.
Proposition development (accommodation offer, event trains, winter experience). Establishing and developing a commercial team including systems and processes. Projects with financial, natural and social capital outcomes.
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![Interior of the Museum of the Home in Hoxton, London featuring a light-hearted interactive exhibit]()
Museum of the Home, London
One of the most universal human themes, home, is explored, celebrated and understood in this fresh and vibrant London museum.
Jon is a Museum Board Trustee and Chair of the Commercial Development Committee, advising and helping the museum in all commercial areas.
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![The John Piper Gallery in the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames with a collection of multimedia works by the local artist]()
River & Rowing Museum, Oxfordshire
A relative youngster, the five galleries of this Henley-based museum celebrate the local, regional and national subjects in its title. It’s housed in a magnificent David Chipperfield building.
Collection management. Supporter development including membership and fundraising. Efficient and effective programming. Proposition development. Change management to a full digital marketing approach including commissioning systems and talent.
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![The exterior of Wray Castle on the edge of Windermere in the Lake District looking to the fells and lake in the distance]()
Wray Castle, Lake District
Built by a surgeon and an heiress to defend only the Cumbrian weather, this monumental building has now become a destination for many of the millions of Lake District visitors each year.
Garden restoration to develop audience appeal and manage capacity across the site. Built heritage research. Programming. Portfolio collaboration with other Lake DIstrict World Heritage Site sites.
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![Bronze model of St Michael's Mount with a copy of a painting in the background.]()
St Michael's Mount, Cornwall
Hundreds of thousands of visitors cross the causeway at low tide or take boats over to explore this living island community and story.
Diversification of the island as a lifestyle (food, drink, art, craft shopping) destination as well as a tourist hotspot. Programming for capacity management. Profitability and proposition development including strategic planning for the island’s boating operations.
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![The view up the Helford River which leads to Falmouth Bay, and much of which cared for and developed by the National Trust for public benefit, nature conservation]()
Helford River & Falmouth Bay, Cornwall
Loved by sailors, gardeners and walkers, this relatively peaceful part of Cornwall is also home to many and workplace to some too.
Strategic development of all the National Trust and partner activities in this area, including community engagement, conservation backlog addressing and establishing business models for countryside visitor experience. Delivering a step-change in accommodation diversification and occupancy / profitability.
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![The historic Great Hall at Trerice house in Cornwall with family visitors enjoying games and learning about the history of the building]()
Trerice, Cornwall
With as many ups and downs as panes of glass in the Great Hall window, Trerice has survived to tell its story. In some cases this is through hands-on Tudor fun and games.
Representation and interpretation of the historic house through testing and development. Transforming the operating model from loss to profit making.
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![The Water Tower holiday cottage, walls and plants of Trelissick Garden in Cornwall lit up as part of a magical winter experience for visitors]()
Trelissick, Cornwall
The woodlands, shoreline, views and buildings of Trelissick estate have become a regular haunt for the people of Cornwall as well as many tourists visiting from further afar.
Audience development to include launching a major family offer. Annual programming including taking winter months into profitability. Partnership working with local festivals, activity providers and boat transport operators.
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![The exotic garden at Glendurgan in Cornwall in winter with snow. The garden has been restored, developed and is cared for by the National Trust]()
Glendurgan, Cornwall
Designed for family enjoyment by a prominent local Quaker family - and still delighting children and adults nearly two hundred years later. This giant garden shelters exotic plants amongst banks of wildflowers and leads down to the gorgeous Helford River.
Landscape-scale restoration projects. Establishing, developing and fundraising for ongoing formal and informal educational programmes.
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![Barrington Court Garden an historic Gertrude Jekyll designed garden in the care of the National Trust, and subject of an extensive restoration project]()
Barrington Court Garden, Somerset
An Elizabethan mansion and converted stable block surrounded by gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll and now restored to their original plans.
Food production and celebration to develop destination dining. Garden restoration and development. Establishing a major events programme.
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![Pillars in the Boudoir at Berrington Hall in Herefordshire a historic house open to the public, restored and cared for by the National Trust]()
Berrington Hall, Herefordshire
Capabilty Brown’s last parkland surrounds a jewel of a house which capitalises on its indigenous and non-indigenous collections.
Consolidating the visitor experience into consistent stories. Feasibility work for major funding for opening the servants’ quarters, and continuing the restoration and development of the gardens, including an unusual semi-circular walled garden.
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![A group of people overlooking a green field below them]()
Binchester Earth
An extensive Roman Fort (mostly not excavated) with a regenerative farm.
Feasibility studies and business planning for all aspects of visitor and community experience design. Incorporating the existing adjacent historic parkland offer (Auckland Castle) as well as a developing heritage theme park (Kynren).
The Brown Sign Project
Jon was happy to talk Carlton and Carly of tourism professional podcast The Brown Sign Project in 2023.
They talked about the importance of negotiation, protecting the magic - and finding your future career path at the bottom of the bin…
Why ‘Eagle & Oak’?
We’d love to say it took multiple focus groups, weeks of reflection, lots of coffee and a trendy brand agency to come up with the name.
It didn’t. It simply represents to us the essence of our business. The eagle soars, taking the broad view and diving into the details it needs to. The oak is robust, enduring and supports hundreds of other plants, insects, birds and mammals in its epic form. The agility and integrity characterised by eagles and oaks are what we want to help our clients build in their cultural, heritage and landscape businesses.
Eagle & Oak’s founder Jon O’Donoghue grew up in a house built of oak with a mother who was a talented and passionate painter of birds of prey (and trees too - as pictured here). He’s warmed himself and cooked on oak log fires, and spent part of his career working for the National Trust - represented visually by a seedling oak tree logo.
Jon and his fellow consultants are pleased to bring you Eagle & Oak, with all that it represents.