Getting My 'Fix' of Farm Animals

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While we quite liked free camping we stayed at caravan parks every few days. This gave us the chance to charge all the electronic stuff – camera batteries, tablet, laptop, phone. Early in our trip we spent two nights at Parsons Green Caravan Park and Animal Farm in the Galtee Vee valley in south Tipperary. We were surprised at the size of some of the parks. This one had tours arriving through the day, often consisting mainly of school children. I've always been interested in the various sheep breeds so was delighted to find Soay and Jacob sheep here. These are both ancient breeds. The Soay come from the island of Soay in the St Kilda Archipelago some 65 kilometres from the Western Isles of Scotland while the Jacobs often have four or six horns as opposed to the more normal two. There were alpacas, sika deer, goats, alpacas, a llama and donkeys. There was even an emu although this was not easy to view. It is regarded as an exotic animal and to have it on public display requires a special licence and a vet on site. These new requirements are part of the EU rules. Bureaucracy gone mad again. Two piebald Irish cobs pulling governess carts took guests on a tour of the site. A Shetland pony and foal were also on view along with Highland and Dexter cows. So I got my fix of livestock for the week. It was a place I could have happily worked at.