Ashtyn Willey - 2025 Northern Ireland & Scotland Study Tour

I started out my exchange with Kapagh club, staying with Natalie Burrows. In my time with Natalie, we did lots of sightseeing in the county’s Armagh region. I got to experience my first Young Farmers One Act performance; it was very inspiring to watch young farmers put their acting skills to the test. 

After my time with Natalie had come to an end, I went onto my next host Glyn Surgenor. Glyn is an avid cattle breeder of Irish Moile cattle, a breed native to Northern Ireland. During my time with Glyn I spent my days at Balmoral Show. On the Wednesday of the show, I was lucky enough to take part in breeds classes with a 10-month-old Irish Moile heifer. I also helped Glyn with preparing his bull for the breeds classes.  Some of the other exhibitors had beef baps in the slow cooker, so not only did I get to show Irish Moile’s I got to taste test them too! On the Thursday of Balmoral, I spent my time touring around the show, as well as watching the Young Farmers events, and even taking part in the stock judging competition! My highlights from the events I watched over the show days were the YF tug of war, the show jumping and the JCB dancing diggers!

On the Sunday after the show we had a pretty relaxed day meeting Glynn’s new niece, going out for lunch and then we made our way up to Ballymena where I met my next host Georgia Kidd. 

I spent the next week with Lisnamurrican Young Farmers, touring the north coast of Northern Ireland. To start the week off we climbed Mount Slemish which although the climb was straight up the mountain it was worth it for the view. We also went for a drive to Waterfoot for an evening swim. We spent the next day touring Benone Strand, Mussenden Temple and Port Stewart which were some of the most beautiful places. On Wednesday I was put to work rolling wool for the local shearer’s which gave me a good chance to get around the local farms. That night we attended County Antrim’s One Act drama performances, which was a good laugh. We then teamed up with Katie who was hosting Keely from Scotland and did a farm tour, getting to see a robotic dairy working and talk about their farm shop and the benefits. We finished the day with a tour of the Bushmills Distillery and dinner in Port Rush with YFCU president Richard Beattie. Over the next few days we adventured around the coast, including going to the Giants Causeway. We also got to catch up with other members from Lisnamurrican before heading off to meet my new host. 

I spent the next week with the McRoberts family, who milk 300 cows and run a silage contracting business. Over the course of the week, I milked cows in the dairy and helped with feeding the calves and some pet lambs Lauren was rearing. We did lots of outdoors activities including cycling around the countryside of Dromore, walking to Kodak corner, kayaking on Castlewellan Lake and riding a show jumping horse at the neighbour's stables. I spent a day with Karen Walker who gave me a tour of their dairy farm where I helped drench some cattle. We then had a tour at Joel Milligan’s pig farm which was a super interesting business. Lastly, we went for a tour at Tayto Castle which is an old castle that has been refurbished as a crisp making factory and is the biggest potato chip brand in Northern Ireland. In my time with Lauren, I also attended Irish jiving classes and then got to put my skills to the test at a country music event in the Republic of Ireland. 

On Saturday May 31st I had an early morning to catch the bus with members of Collone Young Farmers to go to the 100th year Anniversary Parade marking the formation of the Junior Orange Association of Ireland. The Junior Orange Parade had over 5,000 people marching and was a true celebration of religion in Ireland. After a day of watching the parade in Lisburn we headed to the Straid YFC’s BBQ where I got to meet more members of county Armagh on the bus. We spent the next few days sightseeing including walks in Slieve Gullion, Gosford, Newcastle, the Mournes and Spelga Dam. We also did plenty of social things with the members of Collone including mini golf, tag rugby, visiting Seaford butterfly house and eating lots of ice cream! On my last day in Northern Ireland, I spent the morning working on Joel’s pig farm tagging and separating the weavers. Then before heading off, we fit a quick tour to Gilfresh and Northern Ireland’s biggest vegetable producer. A highlight of this tour was seeing the massive digesters that fuel the power to their vegetable factories with silage.

I made my way across the water for a few weeks in Scotland; I was greeted by Mhairi who is SAYFC’s travel chair. I then made my way to Aberdeenshire for the night with the Glennie family before heading to the North Region Highland Games to meet my first official host, Euan. The Highland Games was jam-packed full of activities including tug of war, javelin throwing and highland dancing.

After the games we headed on the four-hour drive to Caithness which is the northernmost county of Scotland and where I was spending the next week. I did many farm tours throughout the week, including a livestock farm owned by the Gunn family, a potato farm, and another cropping farm. I also had the chance to tour the Old Polteney Distillery, attend the Highland Sheep Expo, and take part in the Caithness YF sports week!

The next four days I spent with Hannah Graham in Strathearn, we got up to a range of things even though the weather was miserable. We attended their ladies tug of war practice where I even had a go, it is a lot harder than it looks! We attended the Sterling show where the mud was worse than the August 2022 Agfest! I also helped the club prepare for the Highland Show and on the Monday went to school with Hannah who teaches business classes, I was set the task of judging her student's pizza businesses. 

On the Tuesday I met up with the four other exchangees and we explored Edinburgh for the afternoon. Wednesday was an organised day, where we had a bus tour learning the history of Edinburgh then onto a tour at the Johnny Walker Factory. We went out for dinner that night with all our past hosts. The Highland show was on the next four days which was a highlight of the trip. The sheer scale of the show was incredible, and I could not believe the quality of their Young Farmers arts and crafts. I really enjoyed watching the horse events, looking through their cattle shed and touring around the show. Some of the performances and competitions were interesting to watch, one being the pole climbing competition.

On Sunday afternoon when the show had ended, I met up with Tara, my last host. Tara spent last year on exchange in Tasmania, so I was extremely excited for the week ahead. In my time with Tara, I spent days with members of Stirling club doing some sightseeing and farm tours. I really enjoyed going to the Duncan’s farm where they have taken up grazing collars and have a diverse business integrating farm stays into their business. While with Tara we visited the Kelpies, and the Wallace Monument and I went swimming in the only lake in Scotland!

My exchange ended, I stayed another week in Scotland and then headed to England to catch up with some friends before I headed home.

I want to thank Rural Youth and my sponsors, Salters Hire, for this once in a lifetime opportunity, I have made lifelong friends who I will be going to visit again.