Farming couple faces 70-mile commute

LONG-DISTANCE farming wasn’t what Bernadette and Gerald Sheehan had in mind when they bought 160 acres of land in coastal west Cork 10 years ago.

But since then, while their sheep have spent the summers grazing the rugged, rocky moorland that characterises the wildly beautiful terrain, the Sheehans have enjoyed only visiting rights.

The Sheehans live at Burnfoot, near Mallow, 70 miles away in the north of the county where they have farmed for 30 years.