FRIDAY 11th october 2024

friday fibre focus

Galway Wool

Our brand new Galway fibre is a little bit special, and we're going to tell you it's story.

To start this tale we need to cross the Irish sea and Ireland itself until we find ourselves in County Galway in the West of Ireland.  Here is where the Galway breed was developed and refined from the 1600s onwards.  This breed is large and polled (hornless) with white wool on their heads and legs.  Their fleeces tend to have a medium staple length with good crimp and spring and a micron count of 28 - 33.  For reference, a similar handle would be Southdown.

The Galway is Ireland's only native breed and the wool has been used in Aran sweaters and Irish tweed, giving it a strong connection to its Irish heritage.  Despite this there are less than 2,000 breeding ewes (not just in Ireland - in the world!) which means this a minority breed.