Follow the herd to the annual Cushendale Shearing - summer in Kilkenny
An ancient craft has become a modern, family day out in the town of Graignamanagh – and this year the enjoyable Cushendale Sheep Shearing and Family Fun Day is making a return!
Now in its fourth year, the fun day takes the ancient skills and traditions of sheep shearing and brings back the community involvement and camaraderie of long established agri activities.
The Cushen family is busy getting ready to throw open their gates, this weekend.
Events kick off this Saturday, May 30, from 12.30pm, in the yard of Cushendale Woolen Mills in Graignamanagh.
The mill’s own sheep herd will be brought along for shearing and you can meet them there from 1pm.
At 2pm there will be a talk in the wool shed talk with Paddy and at 3pm a talk with Miriam.
There will be lots of other events – an art demo with Jamie Dunne and lots of activity with the Global Dance group.
Enjoy the summer heat with a cool down treat from the Graignamanagh Ice Cream Bar and get involved at the family arts and crafts station. This year there will also be a bake off!
The day will also give people an opportunity to pause and think about our environment and sustainability.
The process of sheep shearing, making the fleece into wool that is then woven into blankets and other products, is an original form of using the resources in the environment to cater to our needs.
All Cushendale yarns and textiles are made using natural fibres and all those textiles are made at the Graignamanagh Mill. The wool is dyed, woven and hand finished in the mill.
Among the wool used in this process is that from the Galway Sheep herd, that lives locally. A traditional, Irish heritage breed, the sheep produce fleece that is well suited to beautiful wool products.
The woollen mill in Graignamanagh was first established in the town by Cistercian monks, alongside their monastery, in the year 1204.
The mill was already almost 600 years in existence when it came into the stewardship of the Cushen family - and today the Cushens celebrate the involvement of the sixth generations of their family with the mill.
Textiles created at the Kilkenny mill have gained world-wide acclaim, with regular appearances at Shoppe Object in New York.
In recent years, Cushendale’s wool was central to the Irish display at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, where it was combined with large slabs of local limestone from the offshore islands of Inis Meáin.