Raphoe Livestock Mart

What to Expect

Raphoe Livestock Mart holds two sales a week: sheep every Monday at 11am and cattle every Thursday at 11am. Both start at the same hour, so the mart yard follows a fixed rhythm through the week, with stock arriving from early morning and the ring filling shortly before eleven.

Raphoe is a small market town in the Lagan district of east Donegal, and the mart is one of the county’s established trading centres, licensed under PSRA number 001089. Farmers from the Finn Valley, the Lagan and across the border in Tyrone bring store cattle, weanlings and sheep through the ring here. The mart is open to the public and costs nothing to watch, which makes it one of the more honest windows into working rural Donegal available to a visitor: no interpretation panels, no gift shop, just the trade that still underpins the local economy. August and September bring the start of the autumn weanling run, when numbers climb and the Thursday cattle sale is at its busiest. Agriland has covered the Thursday sale in its mart reports, noting strong weanling prices, a sign the ring here is competitive rather than quiet.

Good to Know

• Next sheep sale: Monday 17 August 2026 at 11am. Next cattle sale: Thursday 20 August 2026 at 11am.
• Venue: Raphoe Livestock Mart, Raphoe, Lifford, Co. Donegal.
• Price: free to attend as a spectator. Buying and selling is between registered farmers and traders through the ring.
• Recurrence: sheep every Monday, cattle every Thursday, both at 11am, year-round.
• Contact: 074 914 5385.

Getting There

Raphoe sits just off the N14 and N13 corridor in east Donegal, within easy reach of Lifford, Convoy and Letterkenny, and about twenty minutes from Strabane across the border. The mart is a well known landmark on the edge of the town, with its own yard and parking for farmers arriving with trailers as well as for visitors. The yard is at its busiest in the hour before eleven on both sale days, so arrive early if you want to see stock being penned and graded. Local Link and Bus Eireann services serve Raphoe from Letterkenny and Lifford, though a car is far more practical.