A demonstration of Horse Ploughing and Country Skills is held in the grounds of the Ulster Folk Museum at Holywood in February every year. It’s always held a week before the Mullahead and District Annual Ploughing match in Portadown, one of the main events in the year.
I’ve been told some use the Holywood event as preparation for the much larger Mullahead competition. It gives an opportunity to get the horses back to form after the winter. For competitors who have travelled far it allows a week to adjust and settle the horses. Continue reading “Horse Ploughing and Country Skills”
This week has a definite rural theme with these photographs being taken at the Ulster Folk Museum during a weekend that celebrated native and Traditional Breeds.
Events like this at the Folk Museum are always impressive and educational with the staff dressing in period costume and giving demonstrations on subjects from thatching to baking and how things were one hundred years ago. The museum is divided into rural and urban areas with some of the buildings dismantled brick by brick and transported from their original location. Well worth a visit.
The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum is not too far from me and I visit a few times a year. There are often special events and recently they held a Horse and Carriage day. I forgot about it until the last minute and although I missed most of the carriages, there is always something worthwhile to see in the grounds.
The museum includes a town, Ballycultra, with outlying farmhouses, a Blacksmiths, thatched cottages, a school and even an Orange Hall. Staff often dress in clothing from the early 1900’s and can talk knowledgeably about the period. Many of the buildings were brought stone by stone from their original sites and reassembled in the grounds. You can read about how people lived one hundred or so years ago but to actually sit in their houses gives an extra understanding.
I’m still attempting a photograph every day with varying success but I’m rethinking posting them here every week. It usually doesn’t make for particularly enthralling viewing with images often being hurriedly taken simply because I need an image for that day. I still upload them to Flickr and you can see them here.
Click on an image to enlarge
Horse and cart
Smithy
The Blacksmith above was giving a demonstration on making pokers. Some had handles in the shape of a horse’s head with eyes and ears formed in the metal. This was finer detail than I expected.
Old bus
This old bus was being used to transport people around the Folk Museum grounds.
Draper’s Shop
The Draper’s shop in Ballycultra town. This was the counter area and there were samples of cloth, clothing and threads also on display.
Hats
A selection of hats in the same Draper’s shop.
Soda Bread
This young lady was demonstrating baking soda bread on a griddle at an open turf fire
In early February every year there is a Country Skills Day in the grounds of the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra. The staff wear period dress, peat fires are lit in the cottages and various skills from basket making to printing are demonstrated. It’s always worth a visit
The main attraction of the day is the Horse Ploughing competition but this year unfortunately the ground was just too wet and the event was cancelled.
