Goats go on tour of Co Carlow to turn lawns into lunch
The goats will be visiting Leighlinbridge, Carlow town and Hacketstown
Six goats are about to embark on a tour of Co Carlow in a bid to help the environment.
Carlow County Council’s biodiversity officer Shane Casey has organised for the six Irish goats to spend time in Leighlinbridge, Carlow town and Hacketstown, where they’ll turn lawns into lunch!
From Monday 28 April, they’ll spend two days each in Leighlinbridge and Carlow town grazing on residential greens and a further two days in Hacketstown, where they’ll be supporting a pollinator initiative being rolled out by the fire services. The initiative builds on work carried out under the Carlow Green Infrastructure Strategy to encourage a change in how residential greens are managed.
In 2023, Carlow County Council adopted a Green Infrastructure Strategy, which contains the policy that ‘no pollinator in Co Carlow’s towns and villages will have to travel more than 200 metres in order to find a food source’. To do this, the council developed a unique Urban Pollinator Foraging Network Map in Carlow town. This has since been advocated by the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan as an example of best practice for prioritising local resources.
In 2024, the council commissioned Flynn Furney to contact all community and residents’ groups in the eight largest towns and villages in the county (Carlow town, Tullow, Bagenalstown, Leighlinbridge, Hacketstown, Borris, Ballon and Rathvilly) and to map any community-managed open spaces where there was a desire to do more for pollinators – more than 60 acres were mapped and all individual sites were a minimum size of half-an-acre and were being mown regularly.
Now the focus turns to the next stage, which is to encourage a change in management, to move away from regular mowing, saving time and labour and reducing carbon footprint and towards long-flowering meadows in these areas, significantly improving conditions for biodiversity and enabling enhanced ecosystem services.
The goats themselves are a catalyst for this change in management, rather than the sole solution, and the County Carlow Environmental Network in 2025 will offer practical help to local residents who want to make such changes.
On that last Saturday, 3 May, at 11am, Kate Chandler from the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan will visit the goats in Hacketstown and talk about her work, and all community groups in Carlow are welcome to come, see and learn.
The goatherds William and Melissa will be on hand to chat with anyone who wants to come along and view the goats ‘at work’, and they will also be visiting local schools and groups.
