A Little Adrift: Are These Sheep Yours? Yes, For My Sins : Ireland

Today we drove to the Dingle Peninsula from Adare. We toured the town of Dingle and took more nerdy photos.

view from our B and B

Guinness for strength!

We drove the Slea Head today, one of the most beautiful drives of Ireland. Which says a lot...why do people say that? What makes something the most beautiful anyway? This does:

Many photos will follow but first you must hear of our herding experience.

We happened upon a spot of land with some sheep in the road. Soon into taking photos we saw their owner run out to herd them back into his land. We had a lovely time talking with Aedan and hearing all about his life in the most beautiful place on earth.

He was hilarious. We asked "are all of these yours" and he quipped "yes....these are for my sins."

As it turns out, he owns 450 sheep! His family has been living there for hundreds of years and sometimes married there on the land.

When I asked him about the mischief the sheep get into, he said:

They like to hop the fence and go visit the neighbors grass, they like to find feed bags and get their heads stuck in them and sometimes fall over. Last week a "bloody bull" kicked his grandma over while they were shearing him. They love to get their heads stuck in the wire fence.....

And these two sheep get out every time no matter what he does. He says they're a real pain in the arse. His accent just made everything he said sound hilarious.

What's the best is he identifies and knows all the sheep personality wise. He knew which lambs went with which moms. It was quite adorable hearing about these two "free spirit" sheep he can never keep in line.

Chasing them from traffic

Aedan:

view down from his property:

He gave us a few dinner suggestions and then showed us the narional landmark on his property. One of the "Christian homes" that's 1500 years old. So cool!

his house

More Slea Head photos:

bird poop incident #2... used the rock wall as a railing...

SUCH narrow roads

Later, driving back into town, we saw one of his lambs sitting on the edge of the road. This "two lane" road... Catherine went to check on him and he continued to not run away like all of the other sheep, despite the speeding cars past him. He appeared hurt and she picked him up to carry him back to safety. It was only a minute or two before the lamb quit playing sick and hopped down energetically. We all imagined Aedan saying "for my sins..."