Clare Island ECO-FARM

MACALLA FARM, CLARE ISLAND

MACALLA Farm is a small holding located on Clare Island, off the Mayo coast of Ireland.

 

Macalla (the hill of the echo) is the name given locally to the hill above the houses. It is also the final resting place of Michael Joe O'Malley, an extraordinary islander without whom it would never have happened.

 

The land is mostly mountain land grazed by a flock of sheep and a small herd of horses, but there's also a 10 acre native woodland, orchards, gardens and two polytunnels. The horses, mostly Connemara ponies, are used for riding, driving, horsemanship courses and for various jobs on the farm.  They are kept and trained as naturally as possible, live out all year, and are ridden and worked without shoes or bits.

We aim to be as self sufficeint as possible, and grow all our vegetables and some of our fruit organically in our garden and polytunnels. We also have a small flock of milking sheep, and in the spring and summer, make yogurt and cheese from their milk. We cut some of our firewood from our woodland and tree plantations.

Macalla farm in home to the Clare Island Retreat Centre, one of Ireland's largest residential yoga centre.

We welcome volunteers and apprentices for most of the year.

We also sale oca seed tubers