The Knockamany Bends at Malin Head in Co Donegal, which tower over the well-known Five Fingers strand, attracts plenty of tourists throughout the year.

It’s not surprising really, with the rugged cliffs and the sandy beach beneath offering a host of stunning scenery, particularly on a clear summer’s day.

One wonders though, how many of these visitors notice the suckler cows grazing fearlessly across these steep slopes?

This week’s edition of our Way Out West suckler series focuses on James McGonagle, a suckler and sheep farmer based in the heart of the Knockamany Bends.

The facts

  • James McGonagle is farming full-time alongside his wife Rosemary and five children.
  • He runs a herd of 14 mostly autumn-calving continental-bred suckler cows.
  • He sells very high-quality, well-muscled weanlings at just under one year old, usually in Carndonagh Mart.
  • He also has 140 early- and mid-season lambing ewes – Cheviots and Cheviot-crosses.
  • Grazing dry cows and sheep on the Knockamany Bends in Malin Head, Co Donegal.
  • For more, see the pictures below and read the full story in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal.

    James McGonagle grazes dry suckler cows on the Knockamany Bends in Co Donegal.

    Autumn-calving cows will spend the summer on the Bends, once dried off in April and May.

    Cows on the bends require no feed, except a mineral bucket.

    The well-known Bends tower over the Five Fingers strand.

    Malin Head, Ireland's most northerly point, attracts lots of tourists each year, but farming is still the heart of the community.

    Bull weanlings are mainly purchased by bull beef finishers.

    Some heifers are snapped up by show-cattle breeders.

    This heifer will be kept by James as a future replacement.

    James has won prizes in Cardonagh Mart for his weanlings and some have gone on to win at national shows.