The Carrucan family of Fanore, Co Clare, and the Burrenbeo Trust organised the annual Burren winterage event which took place on Sunday 29 October last year.
The event celebrated its sixth official year in operation with more than 400 people arriving to help local farmers drive cattle to the winterage.
Listen to "Over 400 people take part in Winterage walk" on Spreaker.
“The idea of the cattle drive is to bring the local community together, and around October – for thousands of years – farmers put cattle up on to the mountain,” local farmer Patsy Carruchan told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“I usually put about 36 cows on to this particular winterage. These are cows that have had their calves weaned and are back in-calf.
“They’ll come down from the winterage around January and then calve in February or March.”
The limestone pavement on the Burren provides a unique out-wintering facility for cattle, as it retains the heat from the summer period and provides a dry and warm lie-down for cattle on the winterage.
People of all ages gathered at O’Donoghue’s pub in the village of Fanore before walking the 6km up the mountain after farmer Patsy Carrucan and his 30 spring-calving sucklers.
Also taking part in the walk last year was Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, who said: “I suppose for most farmers the traffic is going in the other direction – from 1 November, cattle go in to sheds and they probably don’t come out until St Patrick’s Day.
“But here’s a tradition that’s born out of appropriate management of the Burren landscape.”
Hikers were rewarded for turning out with a fine, bright autumn day and treated to a clear view of the Aran Islands across a calm Atlantic Ocean.
Farming through the generations
We wouldn’t have the wonderful Burren flora were it not for these cows coming up here every winter
As the cattle reached their winter grazing, farmer Patsy Carrucan explained to the assembled crowd that the winterage tradition spanned way beyond living memory: “If you notice where some of the cows are grazing, they’re really old field boundaries.
“They were surveyed some years ago and they were discovered to be between 5,000 and 6,000 years old, so there was a farm system here with field boundaries and everything – the same as the Céide Fields.”
Dr Brendan Dunford of the Burrenbeo Trust explained: “In the Burren, we produce good food but we also produce biodiversity. We wouldn’t have the wonderful Burren flora were it not for these cows coming up here every winter, grazing back the dead grasses and opening up the way for the new flora.
Dr Dunford hopes that lessons that have been learnt in the Burren by working in partnership with farmers and other organisations can be passed on to other parts of Ireland and other European countries.
“The purpose of this festival is to say to the broader public that farmers produce something other than food, that society really values and that’s become very rare now,” Dunford concluded.
Read more
Living and farming in west Clare: the issues
In pictures: Island farming - 'we never forgot our roots'
Farming and tourism in the Burren
Guerin’s Path open to tourists
The Carrucan family of Fanore, Co Clare, and the Burrenbeo Trust organised the annual Burren winterage event which took place on Sunday 29 October last year.
The event celebrated its sixth official year in operation with more than 400 people arriving to help local farmers drive cattle to the winterage.
Listen to "Over 400 people take part in Winterage walk" on Spreaker.
“The idea of the cattle drive is to bring the local community together, and around October – for thousands of years – farmers put cattle up on to the mountain,” local farmer Patsy Carruchan told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“I usually put about 36 cows on to this particular winterage. These are cows that have had their calves weaned and are back in-calf.
“They’ll come down from the winterage around January and then calve in February or March.”
The limestone pavement on the Burren provides a unique out-wintering facility for cattle, as it retains the heat from the summer period and provides a dry and warm lie-down for cattle on the winterage.
People of all ages gathered at O’Donoghue’s pub in the village of Fanore before walking the 6km up the mountain after farmer Patsy Carrucan and his 30 spring-calving sucklers.
Also taking part in the walk last year was Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, who said: “I suppose for most farmers the traffic is going in the other direction – from 1 November, cattle go in to sheds and they probably don’t come out until St Patrick’s Day.
“But here’s a tradition that’s born out of appropriate management of the Burren landscape.”
Hikers were rewarded for turning out with a fine, bright autumn day and treated to a clear view of the Aran Islands across a calm Atlantic Ocean.
Farming through the generations
We wouldn’t have the wonderful Burren flora were it not for these cows coming up here every winter
As the cattle reached their winter grazing, farmer Patsy Carrucan explained to the assembled crowd that the winterage tradition spanned way beyond living memory: “If you notice where some of the cows are grazing, they’re really old field boundaries.
“They were surveyed some years ago and they were discovered to be between 5,000 and 6,000 years old, so there was a farm system here with field boundaries and everything – the same as the Céide Fields.”
Dr Brendan Dunford of the Burrenbeo Trust explained: “In the Burren, we produce good food but we also produce biodiversity. We wouldn’t have the wonderful Burren flora were it not for these cows coming up here every winter, grazing back the dead grasses and opening up the way for the new flora.
Dr Dunford hopes that lessons that have been learnt in the Burren by working in partnership with farmers and other organisations can be passed on to other parts of Ireland and other European countries.
“The purpose of this festival is to say to the broader public that farmers produce something other than food, that society really values and that’s become very rare now,” Dunford concluded.
Read more
Living and farming in west Clare: the issues
In pictures: Island farming - 'we never forgot our roots'
Farming and tourism in the Burren
Guerin’s Path open to tourists
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