Headed for the Moy today and a visit to the beautiful Ardress House in County Armagh (pictured right). Set in a beautiful rural woodland and orchard setting the house has an incredible history and Una O'Neill, our guide for the day, was the just the right person to tell us all about it. She is well versed in the history of the house and not averse to the odd wee joke or two. Sadly, the property no longer has a functioning farm due to earlier perceived health risks but that is changing. The livestock are making a comeback! There are about five 0r six poultry breeds around at the moment including Marans, Sussex, Rhode Island Reds and Polish Bantams. I never realised that Polish Bantams were such a diverse breed or that they were popular on Northern Ireland farms. I would certainly love to hear from people who could tell me about the diversity of this breed in the North and what their appeal might be. Hopefully the near future will see the return of even more diversity. And talking of diversity, it was interesting to learn that seven out of eight of NI's bat species can be found around the farm buildings of Ardress, including a species that forages for aquatic insects on top of the nearby river by using it's feet! There is still much to see in the rest of the farm as many of the old buildings such as the threshing barn, potato house, byre, diary and so forth have an excellent collection of implements and machinery.
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