Slievenakilla Coal Mines

There are more than 800 different breads of sheep in the world. Sheep are one of the oldest farming animals in the world and have provided man with meat, milk, wool and leather for 11,000 years. There are many different type of breeds of sheep in Ireland and they fall into two categories – Wicklow Cheviot Sheep hill/mountain breeds and lowland breeds. The lowland sheep are concentrated mainly in the centre of Ireland while the hill sheep are located in the coastal counties of the west and in Wicklow.

Most breeds of sheep in Ireland do not have horns, but there are some, which do, mainly in the hill/mountain areas. Sheep give us meat, milk, wool and leather. Sheep‘s milk is rarely used for drinking as it has a very strong taste. Instead, it is used to make cheese such as Feta and Roquefort. The meat from a sheep is called lamb or mutton. Many meals can be made from sheep meat. Lamb is the main ingredient used in Irish stew.

Like cattle and goats, sheep are ruminants. This means that they have a special type of stomach with four pockets, enabling them to get the most nutrients from their food. They swallow the grass without chewing, filling up the largest pocket in their stomach. The food is brought back up into the sheep’s mouth where it is chewed again.

Lambs are born in springtime and grow inside the ewe for five months. Newborn lambs weigh about five kilograms and feed from their mothers’ milk for about 14 weeks. A ewe can only feed two lambs at a time and most ewes will produce one or two lambs per year. However, some ewes will produce three or our lambs and, in this case, lambs may have to be adopted by another ewe.