Portaferry

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Strangford ferry suspended for five weeks

Celebrity chef Rachel Allen with the Mayor of Ards and North Down Alistair Cathcart.

Free shuttle buses for Portavogie’s Tide and Turf Food Festival

Saintfield Mart. Picture: Saintfield Mart

Marts: Great entry of sheep at Saintfield Mart, ewes selling to £210

Last Saturday (August 3), Queen’s University Belfast’s Marine Lab in Portaferry once again welcomed the public to its annual open day as part of the Portaferry Sails and Sounds Festival which celebrates the rich maritime culture of the region.

In pictures: Making waves at Queen’s Marine Lab family-fun day at Portaferry

The old windmill stump on Windmill Road, Portaferry, Co Down. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Bygone Days: Portaferry’s old windmill continues to be a witness to history

Last Friday evening was perfect for a spin out on the tractor and that is exactly what happened down the Ards Peninsula when St Columba’s College in the Co Down town held their tractor run. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Watch: Tractors make way up Windmill Road during St Columba’s tractor run

Saintfield Mart. Picture: Saintfield Mart

Marts: Ewes selling to a top price of £246 at Saintfield Mart, lambs to £182.50

Last Friday evening was perfect for a spin out on the tractor and that is exactly what happened down the Ards Peninsula when St Columba’s College in the Co Down town held their tractor run. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Watch: Tractors make way by St Patrick’s Church during St Columba's tractor run

Last Friday evening was perfect for a spin out on the tractor and that is exactly what happened down the Ards Peninsula when St Columba’s College in the Co Down town held their tractor run. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Watch: More tractors arriving for St Columba’s College tractor run at Portaferry

Last Friday evening was perfect for a spin out on the tractor and that is exactly what happened down the Ards Peninsula when St Columba’s College in the Co Down town held their tractor run. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Watch: St Columba’s College, Portaferry, Co Down, tractor run

Saintfield Mart. Picture: Saintfield Mart

Marts: Ewes selling to £210 and spring lambs to £190 at Saintfield Mart

Did you know, Nugent's Wood, Portaferry, Co Down, is also known as the Bluebell Wood? Last week during the fine sunny weather that we were having Darryl Armitage nipped down to Portaferry to capture the bluebells at Nugent's Wood. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Watch: Take a dander around Nugent’s Wood’s bluebells down at Portaferry

At the drop calf sale held at Downpatrick Mart on Saturday 17th February 2024, a Crossgar farmer topped the drop calf category on the day with lot 609, an Aubrac bull calf at 196kg which sold for £505. Picture: Downpatrick Mart

Drop calves selling to a top price of £505 for 196kg at Downpatrick Mart

At the drop calf sale held at Downpatrick Mart on Saturday 10th February 2024, a Portaferry farmer topped the drop calf category on the day with lot 609, an Aberdeen Angus bull calf at 154kg which sold for £510. Picture: Downpatrick Mart

Good prices for calves at Downpatrick Mart, Aberdeen Angus bull sells for £510

Ballymena Livestock Mart

Fat hoggets selling to a top price per head of £134 at Ballymena Mart

Livestock Markets

Fat ewes selling to £130 at Downpatrick and lambs to £120.50
Drop calf and sheep report for 30th December 2023.
Darryl Armitage

Saintfield Mart. Picture: Saintfield Mart

Fat cattle selling to £1876 for a 730kg Belgian Blue cow at Saintfield Mart

It was an early Saturday morning for Farming Life's Darryl Armitage as he took himself down the Ards Peninsula to Kircubbin for the start of the Lap The Lough run which had been organised by the Peninsula Vintage Club. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Watch: Tractors leaving at Kircubbin at the start of the Lap of the Lough Run

It was an early Saturday morning for Farming Life's Darryl Armitage as he took himself down the Ards Peninsula to Kircubbin for the start of the Lap The Lough run which had been organised by the Peninsula Vintage Club. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Watch: Tractors gather at Kircubbin for the start of the Lap Of The Lough Run

At the drop calf sale held at Downpatrick Mart on Saturday 3rd June 2023, a Strangford farmer topped the market on the day with lot 603, a Belgian Blue heifer at 81kg which sold for £290

Excellent prices for sheep and cattle at Downpatrick Mart, drop calves to £290

Livestock Markets

Belgian Blue heifer at 96kg sells for for £380 at Downpatrick Mart

Saintfield Mart

Steady trade for sheep at Saintfield Mart, ewes selling to £194

At the drop calf sale held on Saturday 6th May 2023 at Downpatrick Mart, a Portaferry farmer topped the market on the day with lot 616 a Belgian Blue male at 60kg which sold for £260

Drop calves top at £260 for 60kg at Downpatrick Mart

Downpatrick drop calf sale held on Saturday 29th April 2023 saw an Annacloy farmer topped the market on the day with lot 640, a Simmental bullock at 72kg £360

Drop calf sells for £360 at Downpatrick Mart

Saintfield Mart

Fat cattle selling to £2200 for a 1000kg Belgian Blue bull at Saintfield

Livestock Markets

Bulls selling to £200 at Downpatrick Mart, hoggets to £140.50

Livestock Markets

Cattle selling to £310 at drop calf sale held at Downpatrick Mart
Drop calf sale held at Downpatrick Mart on Saturday 21st January, top price on the day was lot 625 at £310 for Aberdeen Angus heifer calf (137kg) for Clough farmer.
Darryl Armitage

Gerard runs a flock of 250 BelclareXDorset and CharollaisXDorset ewes near Portaferry

Pre-tupping decisions lead to over £20 increase in ewe profitability

Special celebrations for Portaferry WI

Jacqueline and James Higginson from Captain Jacks with Finance Minister Conor Murphy and Hospitality Ulster Chief Executive Colin Neill during a visit to Portaferry

Treasury must act now to support businesses – Murphy

Lambs sell to £148 at Saintfield

Ewes selling to £258 at Saintfield

Steady trade for quality lambs at Downpatrick

Basket maker and willow artist Clive Lyttle.

Final episode of ‘Keepers of the Lough’ on TV this Thursday

Calves selling to a top price of £1000 at Downpatrick

Trauma teddies

Portaferry members keep in touch during Covid lock-down

Pre-tupping decisions led to over a £20 increase in profitability per ewe

Steven Weatherup and Nigel Gamble

Ploughing matches get underway in province

Fat ewes selling to £150 at Downpatrick Mart

The Society of Ploughmen Northern Ireland intends to hold their annual ploughing match on Saturday 4th September on land kindly loaned by Ted Thompson at Springwell Road Groomsport. Starting at 10.30am sharp

Ploughing matches to be held at Groomsport

Strangford Lough ferry skippers Edward McDonnell and Mark Browne pictured in 2001. Picture: Bernie Brown/News Letter archives

Unforeseen difficulty stalls plans for Strangford Ferry

Ewes selling to £150 at Saintfield Mart

Top price of £1561 paid for Blonde d’Aquitaine bull at Saintfield Mart

Fat ewes selling to £142 at Downpatrick Mart

Massereene Mart: New mart record of £140 paid for a pen of 26.5kg Texels

Top price of £1390 paid for a Charolais cow at Saintfield Mart

Saintfield Mart: Ewes selling to £120

Pictured at the Kircubbin, Portaferry and District Ploughing Match are former world champion David Gill from Annahilt, Co Down, and Brian McNally, chairman of the Kircubbin, Portaferry and District Ploughing Society. The match, which was held at the Springwell Road, Groomsport, Co Down, last Sunday, on land kindly donate by Mr Ted Thompson, was the first that the society had held in eight years. Competitors came from across Northern Ireland and there were several from southern Ireland too. For full report and more photographs see this Saturday's Farming Life. Picture: Darryl Armitage

Ploughing society returns after a break of eight years

Pictured at Ballycastle and District Ploughing Match on New Years day in Ballycastle

Ploughing events in busy weekend

Spring lambs to £104 at Downpatrick

Saintfield Mart

Fat ewes selling to a top price of £132 at Saintfield Mart

A photograph of ploughing by horse in the townland of Cavanreagh, Sixmilecross, Co Tyrone in 1965. Sent by James A Emery BEM

BYGONE DAYS: Fishing fleet expected to return to Portavogie harbour in March

Pictured at the Air Ambulance NI base (l-r) HEMS Paramedics Emma Boylan and Mike Patton, Ellie McDonnell and HEMS Dr. Campbell Brown.

Ellie thanks Air Ambulance crew after near fatal quad bike accident

Saintfield Mart

Saintfield Mart: Fat ewes selling to a top price of £118

Saintfield Mart: Fat cattle settling to £1227 for a 930kg Aberdeen Angus cow