Sheep herding up near the Pookeen

Way up the road to Fehanagh, on the Glanrastel river side,
after I’d pulled off, parked and headed up the trail, the road I’d beed driving on was suddenly taken over by this : those are sheep, hundreds of them

I captured video of this but am unable to load it into the post for some reason.

Which is a shame because you would notice that a farmer’s son and daughter have both jumped up on the four wheeler with him and are riding point, while the wife down below keeps their sheep from trotting off into the wrong direction.

More significantly, you would see 3 well trained sheep dogs cut across the field, jump into a new lane ahead of the sheep and then backtrack within the herd to keep them moving in the right direction until the farmer catches up.

After they’d all passed and headed up the mountain to pasturage along the river under the Pookeen, a dog across the way howled his loneliness for several minutes. He sounded exactly like a wolf, though of course, there are no more wolves in Ireland.

There are predators of some kind out there. I came upon this bit of sheep’s skull and tufts of wool are from one who didn’t make it.

Or maybe it was due to the Pooka who lives out in the Pookeen.

After all, these colorful bags mark the site of a cillin
which is an old unconsecrated burial ground for suicides, unbaptized children, and an unrepentant sinners. The bags have been put there to pacify and bring happiness to the restless spirits in the hope that they will not wander.

The people who live around this area say they don’t go into the fields at night because they are haunted. There are many stories of people being shoved nearly off the rocks by invisible hands or of farmers who accidentally stayed out past dusk getting totally confused and lost in areas they are completely familiar with.

Walking alone way out there after the sheep had passed, I could believe it. The place is powerful. Looking up toward the Pookeen

I made sure to be back in my bothy by nightfall.