Caoirigh | Sheep

Our favourite photos are often the ones that we didn't anticipate when we left home.  Those ones where we had to quickly grab a camera, change lenses and compose a shot just in the nick of time before a moment has passed.

Nothing typifies this as much as this shot from Donegal in March 2022. We have an (entirely healthy and not at all weird) obsession with sheep. The fatter, woolier and more brazen the better.

Not far from Glencolmkille, on the winding road to An Port, we spotted an ill-tempered looking sheep on the side of the road and rolled down the window to take its photo. It wasn’t ever meant to be an art print, we just liked its attitude.

We were so distracted by it that we almost didn’t notice a convoy of sheep heading up the long winding road towards us with the expectation of food. I say convoy rather than flock as they all kept to the road, following it like traffic rather than cutting across the grass.

We leapt out of the car, grabbed a camera and changed lenses just in time to get the shot before the moment was gone (and our car was ominously surrounded on all sides by hungry sheep).

Caoirigh is the Irish word for sheep. We've always felt that it has more weight and majesty to it than the English translation, befitting their importance in Irish culture. Without these wooly guardians of the Irish landscape, there is no Donegal Tweed, Aran Jumpers or McNutt picnic blankets. And we would be missing some of our favourite shots from Ireland.