In Doonagore, Co Clare, Pat Sweeney is farming on the edge. His 100ac farm stretches from the cliff edge, a stone's throw from the Cliffs of Moher, right up to the top of the hill. The further down towards the cliffs you go, the drier the farm gets. Up towards the hill then the land is wetter and peaty in nature.

This can work out well depending on the summer weather. In a wet summer, cattle can be moved to the lower ground but when it is dry, they are moved up on the hill to prevent the grass from burning.

“One of the main fears I have here, especially given the winter we just went through, is storms,” said the drystock and suckler farmer. “Two years ago there were eight storms that came in here and the worst one they called Darwin. We lost 100 slates off the back of the house and a window got broke. I won’t even talk about the damage to the hay sheds and that down on the farm.”

It comes off the ocean there and you’ve no protection whatsoever. It comes, bang, right in here and you just have to put your head down and wait it out

Some neighbouring farms lost stock with one in particular losing animals where the walls of the slatted house were blown in on top of them. Despite the fact that we had numerous storms in the winter just gone by, nothing compared to Darwin.

“As long as I’ve been here that was the worst storm experience I’ve ever had. The other storms this winter were nothing. That storm is embedded in my memory. It comes off the ocean there and you’ve no protection whatsoever. It comes, bang, right in here and you just have to put your head down and wait it out.”

Livelihood

Farm payments are the livelihood of farmers in the area, says Sweeney.

"I did REPS two, three and four and now I’ve gone into GLAS. I got into the first round. It’s similar things to the REPS; the meadow has to be maintained as traditional meadow and has to be cut at different times of the year."

While the skill of stone wall building may have been lost in some parts of Ireland, Sweeney believes that it is just a matter of passing it down through the generations.

"Even tomorrow we’re hoping to build a stone wall over here because my sons are off school. My two sons will be over helping me, same as my father showed me and that’s how you do it, keep it alive. I don’t think it’s a dying tradition, you have to take time to teach them."

Listen to an interview with Pat in our podcast below:

He also owns a six-acre field in Doolin that gives him access to a winterage.

"Normally places on the winterage are passed down through the family from generation to generation. Very seldom would an opportunity come up to buy these shares in the winterages and I’m waiting for that to happen, because at the moment I only have spaces for two bullocks over there."

Agri-tourism

In 1994 Sweeney decided to sell his milk quota and convert the farmhouse into a B&B with his wife, Mary. His father didn't agree with him at the time because he was ruling out the option to go back into milk in the future if he wanted to. But after a night where four couples came to stay he agreed that it had been the right thing to do.

Being a farmer, to survive now you’ve got to think outside the box and diversify

"To hear him saying that; for me that was massive," said Sweeney who now has five suckler cows and fattens bullocks. "Being a farmer, to survive now you’ve got to think outside the box and diversify."

And diversify he did. The local farmers have now got a walking trail that takes tourists from the village of Doolin, along the cliff edge, all the way to Liscannor.

"Lucky enough we were the last group to get into the walkways scheme package," said Sweeney, who believes that the best views from the Cliffs of Moher are not at the center of them but to the left and right along the coast. "The IFA negotiated with the Government back in 2008 with Eamon O’Cuiv who was the minister at the time."

Three years ago, he started doing guided tours along the trail to give visitors the "experience of the knowledge we have from living here all our life. The spin-off from that walking trail in the local area is unbelievable really, right down from Doolin to Liscannor. I would compare this walkway here to the greenway above in Mayo. People are staying in the hostels, the local B&Bs, the local campsites."

Another farmer in Liscannor has now built a car park for walkers starting at that end of the trail and a couple recently got married overlooking the Aran Islands on Pat Sweeney's farm. He also does tours of his farm for those who have an interest.

"I did four of those tours last year, I bring them down to the shed and give them a talk about farming in Ireland in general and the price of cattle."