Tanrallt is a family run traditional farm locatated on the outskirts of the village of Llangian, between Aberdaron and Abersoch on the Llŷn Peninsular in North West Wales. Tanrallt has been farmed by the family for three generations and we all speak Welsh as our first language.
Tanrallt was a small dairy farm, milking 16 cows and growing potatoes, about 80 sheep were introduced in 1981 when my husband came home to farm.
We got married in 1988 and have four grown up children now!
An opportunity arose in 1993 to purchase adjacent additional land and the sheep flock was increased to 300.
Decision was taken in 1997 to sell the milking herd, buy the farm from the landlord and develop a bunkhouse, the first of it’s kind on the Peninsular.
I have always been interested in knitting and taught myself to knit when I moved away from home.
One thing I always wanted to learn to do was spin wool. I bought a spinning wheel in 2012 and got involved with a local spinning and weaving group to develop my skills.
Two Shetland sheep were bought in 2013, the journey of improving the quality of the fleeces of the sheep flock had started. We have gradually found dual purpose breeds for both wool and meat that suit our farm, we currently have Romney, Welsh Mules and Shetland sheep, as well as buying fleeces in from few other farms on the Peninsular, some Shetland wool is also bought from Mynydd Llandegai near Bethesda.
Our wool was commercially produced for the first time in 2017.
As a hand knitter I went for specialist yarns that I couldn’t buy in shops
Next major project is a weaving loom to
introduce a further dimension to the variety of things that our wool can create.
One of the inspirations for our wool journey was Bruce (pictured above), a pet Shetland lamb who was born in 2014, who although sadly no longer with us, provided us with beautiful grey colored fleece and the gem of an idea to welcome people to the farm to see the sheep in their natural habitat and to provide an opportunity to try your hand and knitting and spinning courses.