We had three activities today, a sheepdog demonstration, a forest walk, and a beach walk with a seaweed identification and harvesting for snacking activity. We’re pretty tired tonight!

Atlantic Sheepdogs Demonstration

We had a fantastic time hearing a 5th generation farmer, Martin Feeney, talk about working with border collies at the Atlantic Sheepdogs demonstration. He used voice commands, a whistle that was triangular-shaped, and hand gestures like slapping his leg to get one of his dogs to move a group of eight sheep around the field. He said the bond between him and the dog was paramount in getting her to respond and that she wouldn’t work for anyone else. That’s why he won’t sell his dogs, but will travel internationally to help others train their own dogs.

At one point Martin had the dog separate the group of 8 sheep, bringing 3 forward and sending the other 5 back out to the field. When we applauded the dog, he reminded us that dogs can’t count, but she watches him and listens carefully.

He also reassured us that the dogs choose to work and retire when they no longer find the sheep interesting. He has one 12-year-old still moving sheep and one 5-year-old who is retired to the house as a pet.

Martin clearly loves animals and talked about the different sheep that he breeds on his farm. The demand for wool is so low that it’s cheaper to burn the sheered wool than transport it to anyone who would use it. Cows and goats make better milk animals and he doesn’t raise his sheep for meat either. His main interest now is just preserving different breeds.

Martin was also very witty during his talk. You had to listen closely to catch the humor, and not just because of his wonderful accent. For example, he told us that Irish farmers aren’t very imaginative…he called this demonstration the Atlantic Sheepdog Demo because that’s the Atlantic (pointing toward the nearby ocean) and this is a sheepdog (pointing to his dog). He mentioned that Ouessant sheep are from…you guessed it…Ouessant, France. Herdwick means “sheep pasture” in old Norse; so Herdwick sheep are indeed sheep pasture sheep. Quietly hilarious!

Benbulben Mountain Forest Walk

The champion sheepdog handler had talked about his father riding a bike up to Benbulben Mountain each morning before school to check on the sheep, which made his dad most interested in a book about using border collies to help do this job for him. It was great fun for us to drive up to the parking lot and then hike the almost muddy trail along the west side of the mountain that was dotted with sheep.

This table-topped mountain, shaped like the mesas in the western US, has a cap of limestone that is weather and glacial resistant. It is featured in poetry by W.B. Yeats, who has a trail dedicated to him and is buried nearby.

Streedagh Beach Walk with Dr. Prannie Rhatigan

Dr. Prannie Rhatigan, medical doctor and seaweed expert, led us out onto Streedagh Beach to identify edible seaweed and eat some on the spot (“here—just wash the sand off in that bit of seawater over there”), see the historic boathouse that her husband Johnny used as a youngster, and enjoy tea and dried seaweed snacks on the beach where the Spanish Armada lost three ships on their way back home from trying to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. Whew – lots to see and do here! Side note for another tie in to the sheep farm we visited earlier: Farmer Martin mentioned that the Jacob sheep breed arrived in Ireland by swimming from the sinking Spanish Armada ships.

The first stop of our seaweed tour was at the shipwreck of The Greyhound that ran ashore in a bad storm at the end of 1770. This wreck is only visible at low tide, and testing was done on the wood to prove it was too young to be part of the Spanish Armada.

As we walked along, avoiding waves to keep dry feet and avoiding slippery rocks, we discovered a treasure trove of sea life on the beach. I learned that you can kick (gently) a limpet loose from a rock but have to be quick about it because they can see the shadow of your foot coming and will clamp down on the rock. Prannie showed me that carnivorous sea snails have different-shaped openings than the herbivores, which is fascinating information for this biology teacher 🙂

Prannie and Johnny’s daughter rode her bike to the beach to join us after her first day of school today. She is 13 years old, loves Pokémon, and clearly has grown up on the beach where her parents still go for a swim most mornings. Such a different way to live in the eyes of Iowans 🙂

A walk up the cliff brought us to an old stone boathouse that Johnny showed us. He said he hung the old boat up in the rafters inside when he was a teenager and it hasn’t been used since, as far as he knows. We also walked across the promontory top to the Streedagh Beach Wedge Tomb that dates back to 2700 BCE. It was aligned with the setting sun and the outer cairn rocks have moved elsewhere due to weather and earlier human-need for the building materials.

We also saw the Glencar Limestone Formation rocks that are 340 million years old. The fossils here are examples of coral and crinoids (ancient sea lillies) from a time when Ireland was near the equator. As we were leaving the beach, a university group was walking out on these rocks to study the fossils.

Before we left the beach, we were treated to hot herbal tea, a dried seaweed and olive oil dip on rice cakes, fresh cherry tomatoes from Johnny’s garden. and homemade cocoa-coated, ball-shaped cookies with dates and seaweed ingredients. Hopefully those are in Prannie’s cookbook, Irish Seaweed Kitchen, which we purchased before saying goodbye.

Mill Park Hotel

The Mill Park Hotel, our stay for the night, is a very nice hotel on the edge of Donegal. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, it was raining pretty good. Rather than walk into the town in the rain, we chose to get reservations at check-in to eat at the hotel’s restaurant. The food was delicious, so that worked out just fine. My Tony had his usual pint of Guinness, I shared a bottle of Proseco with Tony W, and Nancy had a fruity drink.

We really did miss seeing the town of Donegal. They have a pedestrian-friendly town center, a castle by the River Eske and Abbey ruins by the bay. Just need to add another week to the trip so we can enjoy two nights at each of these coastal towns. No problem!

Tony used the hotel workout room for a treadmill run the next morning, and we managed to leave without taking any pictures here.