An informative sheep shearing demonstration.
When: 7th July 2013
Where: Skipton High Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire
£: Free
What was it?
The weather couldn’t have been better for this year’s Skipton Sheep Day. The Skipton Sheep Day is an annual celebration of the town’s namesake (Skipton means sheep town). The high street was closed to traffic and instead of cars, it was filled with stalls, animals and people.
The day’s entertainment kicked off at 10.30am with the Sheer Sheep Experience, an informative demonstration of sheep shearing.
This was followed by a display of duck herding in the main arena. The ducks were herded (with a few comic mishaps) around an obstacle course by an enthusiastic sheepdog.
We were hoping to witness some sheep racing after the herding of wildfowl but alas this portion of the day’s events didn’t materialise. Instead we had to make do with perusing the many food and drink stalls that lined the street. There was an impressive selection of goodies on offer with pies and cakes in abundance. After sampling some very fruity jam and extremely rich brownies the lack of sheep racing didn’t seem so bad.
People peer into the PIG at Skipton Sheep Day.
The large pink pig lying in the road – which was in fact a special installation and show – proved very popular with the crowds as they took it in turns to stick their heads into the pig’s belly to watch a piece of theatre. In fact watching the audience watching the show was almost as entertaining!
Other entertainment throughout the day included live music from the Skipton Town Band and Smiler, a funfair, spinners and weavers and a petting zoo.
Skipton itself has plenty of attractions including canal boat rides, the Craven Museum, a regular farmers’ market, Skipton Woods and Skipton Castle. We had a look around the castle while we were in town and for the £7 admission cost you get to see plenty of the castle and learn quite a bit about its history. There was even a demonstration of medieval dancing while we were looking around.
More info: www.sheepday.co.uk
Not your usual sheep!
Herding geese instead of sheep.
It’s not just sheep at Skipton Sheep Day!