For Christmas, my lovely lady wife got myself and my father a voucher for a Falconry of Ireland session, which we were finally able to redeem this morning.

The day starts with a coffee as you walk around and have a look at some of the fascinating birds in the aviaries. You then get a general introduction to falconry as a sport and they explain the differences between hawks, falcons and buzzards. This is important as we will be walking with hawks and watching a falcon demonstration later and their techniques are indeed, very different.

Then the group heads off to the nearby field and wood with a pair of harrier hawks to get to feel how they move and feed. This was a fantastic experience and really gets you up close and personal with the birds.

After the walk we came back to the main courtyard to see a falcon demonstration as well as getting to meet some of the other birds who we had seen in their aviaries earlier in the day.

All in all, it was about a two to two and a half hour experience and well worth a trip!