Cullintraw Day

I have spent a lovely day with other National Trust staff and volunteers at Cullintraw, County Down, which is near the Castle Espie nature reserve.

The National Trust acquired the freehold of fourteen acres at Cullintraw in 1994 from Joan Morrow.

There were about seven of us today. We were cutting and gathering soft rushes in the field.

A small herd of Dexter cattle kept an eye on us.

After lunch - prawn mayonnaise sandwiches and tea for self - a few of us extracted some ragwort in a corner of the field.

It was quite remarkable to see how many Cinnabar caterpillars there were on the ragwort.

Heather cut the soft rushes with a powerful Allen scythe, which made light work of it.