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festivals · Friday 23 October 2026 · Various 
Burren Winterage Weekend 2026
At Various venues across the Burren · Bellharbour and surrounding Burren villages, Co. Clare
At Various venues across the Burren · Bellharbour and surrounding Burren villages, Co. Clare
The Burren Winterage Weekend runs from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October 2026, dates confirmed by the organisers. It marks winterage, the transhumance tradition in which Burren farmers move their cattle up onto the limestone uplands for the winter rather than down into the valleys. The practice goes back thousands of years and is the reason the Burren’s flora survives: winter grazing keeps the scrub down and leaves the ground open for the following summer’s gentians and orchids.
The flagship event is the community cattle drive, coordinated by the landscape charity Burrenbeo Trust, in which hundreds of people join a local farming family in walking their herd up to the winterage pastures. Recent editions have centred on the Bellharbour area of North Clare and have combined the cattle drive with the Burren Food Fayre, alongside farm walks, talks and the Burren Winterage School, which brings farmers, ecologists and researchers together.
The full 2026 programme, venue list and ticket prices had not been published at the time of writing. Burrenbeo Trust posts them at burrenwinterage.com and takes bookings online. Events sell out, particularly the cattle drive, so it is worth checking the site as soon as the programme goes live.
The Burren spreads across North Clare, with Bellharbour, New Quay, Ballyvaughan and Carron the main settlements in the area the weekend covers. Ballyvaughan is on the N67 coast road, about 45 minutes from Galway city and an hour from Ennis; Bellharbour sits a few kilometres east of it on the same road. There is no practical public transport for early-morning events, so drive and expect field or verge parking rather than car parks. Galway, Ennis and Lisdoonvarna are the nearest towns with a range of accommodation, and Ballyvaughan itself has hotels and guesthouses that book out for the bank holiday.
Heading to Various venues across the Burren? Clare has plenty more to see. Browse the area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.
In town for Various venues across the Burren? These Clare tours book out in summer.