There was a buzz throughout Blessington Livestock Mart for the annual Black Beauties Suffolk sale.

With just over 90 lots of quality ewes on offer it attracted interest from all across Ireland and Europe, with many lots finding new homes both nationally and internationally.

Topping the sale, selling for a price of €7,500, was a special ewe lamb from the well-known Malinhead flock of John Doherty.

This standout daughter of Crewlands Dancing Brave was the very last sheep through the ring on the day.

A large number of buyers waited hard until the very end to try to secure the powerful ewe lamb but it was a European buyer that placed the winning bid and she will be heading across the channel to join the Elevage de Nives flock.

This was Doherty’s sole ewe lamb entry and produced a new female record for the Malinhead flock.

The next highest price in the ewe lamb section came from Dennis Taylor's Ballynacannon pen. This ewe lamb was described by Taylor as ‘truly retro’ and she went on to sell for €2,000 to David Kelly.

She was also a daughter of the 10,000gns Mountford Mustang making her a genetic dream. Taylor went on to sell a second ewe lamb for €1,000, commanding a strong pen average of €1,500.

Top priced shearling ewes

In the shearling ewe section there was a joint top price of €6,000 achieved, the first hailing from the Donegal based Castleisle flock of Andrew and Richard Wilson and the second from the Annakisha flock of the O’Keeffe family from Cork.

The Wilson family’s pen leader was a daughter of homebred ram Shannagh Resolve and her dam was also a homebred ewe that went back to Limestone Aston Martin.

She was scanned in-lamb carrying twins to the 2025 Blessington premier sale champion, Castleisle Dancing Brave, that was sold for €9,000.

She was purchased by Tyrone-based breeders J&L Doyle after spirited bidding.

The impressive pen of 20 shearling ewes from the Wilson family topped again at €5,000, this time for a full sister to the €6,000 shearling.

Like her sister she was also scanned carrying twins but this time to the 11,000gns Limestone Dream Maker, purchased by the Wilsons at the NI premier sale in Ballymena.

The final bid was placed by S&S Gahan to secure this lady for their flock.

Also amongst the Wilson family’s strong line-up was an upstanding Kells T-Rex daughter, that was scanned in-lamb carrying twins to Malinhead Cannonball.

This ewe also hailed from a strong female line going back to Lakeview Armani.

It was well known Northern Ireland based-breeder Mark Priestley that placed the winning bid of €4,500 on this occasion.  

The Wilsons went on to average an extremely impressive €2,420 for their pen of 20 in-lamb shearling ewes.

Annakisha and Clyda flock

The O’Keeffe family’s joint section topper that sold for €6,000 was a proud daughter of Blackbrae AB President, a ram that has bred ram lambs to a top of €20,000 and numerous prize winners for the family over the past number of years.

She was scanned carrying a single to the 11,000gns Limestone Dream Maker.

The O’Keffees went on to sell two more in-lamb shearling ewes for a price of €3,000 each. Both of these powerful shearlings where sired by Blackbrae AB President and scanned carrying twins.

The first to hit this price was served by the 11,000gns Limestone Dream Maker and she was picked up by Eamonn Duffy of the Meath-based Kells flock.

The second was served by Blackbrae Drop Dead Gorgeous and came from the same female line as the famous Annakisha Bright Eye.

It was James Screene that placed the winning bid on this much-admired female from the Annakisha flock.

The O’Keeffe family’s success continued to flow, leading to a pen average of €1,683.

Malinhead flock

It wasn’t just a super ewe lamb that the Malinhead brothers had on the trailer to Blessington with them. They also had a super consignment of nine shearling ewes with them.

This strong consignment was topped at €3,000 by an extremely powerful Limestone Aldaniti daughter and going back on her dam's side to well-known Limestone Red Rum.

She is a maternal sister to Malinhead Dynamite, the 2025 Donegal Suffolk club reserve champion and the 4,800gns Malinhead Mercedes Benz.

It was Cork man Edward Buckley that placed the winning bid on the Malinhead pen leader to be a foundation female for his new Suffolk flock.

Doherty sold a total of nine classy in-lamb shearling ewes to give him the second highest pen average in the section of €1,844.

Ballynacannon flock

Following on from his great success in the ewe lamb section Dennis Taylor also had great success in the shearling ewe section, with his lead female selling for €2,800.

Taylor commented that this shearling ewe "is as good a gimmer as we have offered for sale for a while".

She was sired by Limestone Springbok and she is out of a homebred Ballynacannon ewe that has bred many top priced females over the past few years for Taylor.

This admired lot was in-lamb carrying twins to the noted top breeding ram Birness Gladiator.

It was a European buyer that placed the winning bid to bring this bright girl to the continent.

Taylor's consistent pen of five shearling ewes averaged €1,470 on the day.

Finnvale flock

The Donegal father and son duo, Jonathan and Andrew Lucas of the Finnvale flock, also brought a mighty pen of in-lamb shearling ewes to Blessington where they topped at €2,500.

The pen topper was a massive bodied Claycrop B MacAllister daughter that was out of one of the best female lines in the Finnvale flock.

She was also a member of the Donegal men’s show team as a ewe lamb.

She was scanned in-lamb with twins to the Lucas’s new junior stock ram Craigdoo Diddly Squat.

The father and son team had a very consistent sale for their pen of nine in-lamb shearling ewes, which led to a 100% clearance and an average of €1,544.

Overall average

Overall the annual Black Beauties sale was a roaring success with in-lamb shearling ewes achieving a super clearance of 94% with an overall average of €1,836.

Demand for ewe lambs was also well up on the 2024 sale, achieving a super average of €2,258.