A nice story to start your Tuesday with.
A Kerry farmer is celebrating after 24 stolen sheep made their way back to his farm close to Killarney on their own.
The Farmer's Journal tells the story of how Dermot Donovan's hoggets went missing for more than four days but found their way back to his farm after travelling over the mountains close to Killarney over the Easter weekend.
Thirty Scotch and Texel-cross hoggets disappeared from Mangerton mountain on Wednesday 12 April.
Donovan searched the mountain high and low but only found four of the animals, with 26 presumed gone for good.
However, four days later, 24 of the hoggets returned.
"They were driven out through bare bog and you can see their tracks, and the footprints of the man driving them and his dog too," the farmer continued.
"He drove them out the top of Mangerton mountain, it’s 2,700ft high, and turned them to the right. He must have driven them on a long ways after that because it took them four days to get back.
"Certainly they made their own way back, but they were gone a long way because it took them a long time to get home. A sheep that’s born in one part of the mountain, even if it’s a 2,000 acre commonage, will return to where she was born."
The family plans to bring photos of the tracks and footprints to the Gardaí in a bid to find the person who stole the sheep.
