Borris Mart Weekly Thursday Sale

What to Expect

Borris Mart sits on the Fenagh Road at Clonygoose, just outside the village of Borris in the south of County Carlow, and its sale day is Thursday. It is the smallest of the three yards run by Leinster Marts, a farmer-owned co-operative society that also operates Carlow Mart on the Killeshin Road and Kilcullen Mart in County Kildare. Between them the three keep a sale running on most weekdays: Carlow takes cattle and calves on Mondays, Kilcullen takes cattle on Wednesdays, and Borris takes Thursday.

A mart is a working auction rather than a visitor attraction, and Borris is a small country yard, so there is none of the scale of the bigger south Leinster centres. That is much of the appeal if you have never been to one. Stock is penned and inspected in the yard before the sale, buyers and sellers gather around the ring, and the auctioneer works through the lots at a fast, plain-spoken pace, calling by weight and pen number. Entry to watch from the rails costs nothing, as at Irish marts generally. Numbers at any small mart rise and fall sharply with the farming calendar, and sheep sales in particular run to their own seasonal dates rather than every week, so the single most useful thing you can do before travelling is ring the office on 059 913 1617 and ask what is being sold on the Thursday you have in mind. Start times are not published online and are best confirmed the same way.

Good to Know

• Weekly sale day: Thursday. Ring 059 913 1617 to confirm the sale and its start time before travelling
• Venue: Borris Mart, Fenagh Road, Clonygoose, Borris, Co. Carlow
• Free to attend and watch the ring
• Run by Leinster Marts, a farmer-owned co-operative with yards at Borris, Carlow and Kilcullen
• Sister sales: cattle and calves at Carlow Mart every Monday, cattle at Kilcullen every Wednesday
• Sheep sales at Borris run on seasonal dates rather than every week

Getting There

Borris is in the Barrow valley in south County Carlow, roughly 20km from Carlow town by the R705 and R702 and about 12km from Bagenalstown. The mart is on the Fenagh Road at Clonygoose, a short drive out of the village, with a yard laid out for livestock trailers. Bagenalstown, on the Dublin Heuston to Waterford railway line, is the nearest station, but bus services into Borris are limited on weekday mornings and nearly everyone arrives by car or jeep and trailer.