{"id":1462,"date":"2012-12-26T11:51:22","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T16:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2012-12-26T11:57:33","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T16:57:33","slug":"educational-travel-scotland-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/educational-travel-scotland-ireland","title":{"rendered":"Student Trips: Ireland and Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally featured in\u00a0Explorica\u2019s 2012 fall magazine<\/a>\u00a0highlighting educational trips to Ireland. We\u2019ll be sharing 20 life-changing student trips\u00a0throughout the season. Transform your students\u2019 lives (and maybe your own) with any of these exceptional educational travel experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

As you journey around the famous Ring of Kerry\u2019s 100 miles of road that hugs the sea, jump out and feel the earth for a moment. Really feel it. See life through a farmer\u2019s eyes\u2014the everyday work that goes behind raising and tending 1,000 or so wandering sheep. Woolly mammals reign in this region. There are twice as many sheep in the whole of Ireland as people. Fluffy and cute as they look, it\u2019s not a walk in the park (or even countryside) running a sheep farm. After all, it\u2019s the fourth most important enterprise in Ireland\u2019s agri-food industry.<\/p>\n

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In between hectic Killarney and laidback Kenmare, stretch your legs at Kissane Sheep Farm, a 3,000-acre plot of rugged land nestled in the stunning Moll\u2019s Gap valley. The setting is so perfect, you\u2019ll think the view was photoshopped. Here\u2019s where John and Sean Kissane run the fifth-generation family business with the necessary help of eight well-trained sheepdogs.
\nWhile you might want to play with the Border Collies, these are working dogs, not pets. Witness how these super smart canines steer a group of skittish sheep and bring them home to the pens with merely a whistle or a hand gesture from their handler. The sheepdogs herd flocks by the sound of their bark and fancy footwork, a wee bit more impressive than fetching a stick.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve been thoroughly impressed by the skills it takes to herd sheep, see what it\u2019s like to shear them.\u00a0But first things first\u2014you\u2019ve got to catch one! All that extra wool doesn\u2019t exactly slow down a stubborn mountain sheep. And to make matters slightly more intimidating, these animals are jumpers. So if you\u2019re good at wrestling in mid-air, you might have a shot. John, on the other hand, can use one hand and his knees to get the job done. Check your watch because a professional shearer can do this in less than two minutes and remove the fleece in one piece, as if peeling an apple.<\/p>\n

Before you get too excited about bringing home Irish knit mittens, you should know the sheep industry here is mostly for producing meat, not wool. So if you\u2019re really up for an authentic taste of the Eire countryside, finish the day with a steamy bowl of lamb stew and be sure to have a side of authentic Irish soda bread to sop up any extra that you\u2019ve missed. Regardless, a day spent in the rural heart of Ireland alone should be more than enough to warm you.<\/p>\n

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This article was originally featured in\u00a0Explorica\u2019s 2012 fall magazine\u00a0highlighting educational trips to Ireland. We\u2019ll be sharing 20 life-changing student trips\u00a0throughout the season. Transform your students\u2019 lives (and maybe your own) with any of these exceptional educational travel experiences. As you journey around the famous Ring of Kerry\u2019s 100 miles of road that hugs the sea, Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explorica-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2134,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/2134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}