Gearing Up for Springtime in North Northumberland

At Ilderton Dod Barns, sheep farming is our main enterprise and the annual cycle seems to come around faster each year. The rams have been out with the ewes since November and within the next month the ewes will be pregnancy scanned, with lambing starting mid-April. Our Scottish Blackface sheep are ideally suited to the wild hills surrounding the holiday accommodation, but for lambing time most ewes are brought closer in so it’s impossible not to see our lambs during this time.

All our sheep at The Dod lamb outside and the lambs are particularly fast to get to their feet and trot off with their mothers, often within an hour of birth. Although our hills are split by fences, our sheep are well ‘hefted’ i.e. they know which hill they belong to. This is because the only sheep we buy in are a few rams each year, the rest learn where to graze from their mothers.

Because of the number of sheep in the area, there are definite sheep-related touches within the accommodation. If you can’t wait until lambing time to visit, we have plenty of availability from now on and the adult sheep would welcome you as guests, but we have good fencing around the garden and parking area to make sure the sheep don’t wander inside!

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