Hundreds attend Burren winterage walk

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The Carrucan family of Fanore, Co Clare, and the Burrenbeo Trust organised the annual herding event that took place on Sunday 29 October.

It was part of a series of events run over the bank holiday weekend to highlight the integral role Burren farmers play in maintaining the unique flora and biodiversity found in the Burren.

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.”

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.

Appropriate management

Also taking part in the walk was Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, who commented: “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.”

A shorter trek was also available, and the two groups of walkers met half way up the mountain. 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

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.”

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