After being buried in a snow drift for 12 days, a brown 11-month-old lamb was found alive on Chibbanagh Farm in The Braaid.
Farmer Graham Watterson said after the first heavy snow fall struck on Friday, March 22, they found and sheltered a lot of the flock.
His sister Carole said: ‘This is not what the farming community is used to – the swiftness and severity of it.’
She said of the Friday night: ‘We looked round, but could not see a thing. It was a pretty miserable night, and that the weather was nothing we had experienced and could not imagine how they survived the whole night long.’
They headed back to the field on Saturday. ‘The wind was strong and it was cold. It’s a big, big field, we were prodding round with a stick. We managed to find 12, they were totally buried … they were clever, they got into roots and found pockets of air.’
She said every day until Easter Monday, she carried on looking.
‘It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I was not sure if any were missing, but where we thought perhaps there was, we could not leave it alone.’
She returned on Tuesday and spotted the lamb.
‘He was just sat there,’ she said. ‘He could not move he was so weak. It was a shock. I was surprised to find one after a day, never mind 12. Quite often they come out and do not survive the evening. His ears are a bit warmer now. He is contentedly chomping on grass. He was quite calm, he had the right temperament.’
Graham said of his sister, ‘she always worries about anything lost, she never gave up.’
