In June 2012 after reading this website, we attempted to telephone Rathdowney Alpacas but after getting an answering machine decided to take a gamble and got in our car to drive the 1 1/2 hours. What a wasted effort, although the sign on the gate indicated they were open, we were greeted by a very brusque, off hand owner who said she'd sold her alpacas, leased the property and was going to Italy for a year as she'd been hard at it running the place on her own for the last 20 years. She permitted us to see 4 remaining alpacas which were staying on the property, but we weren't permitted to touch them or get anywhere near them - never received such a "chilly" welcome from any person on the land before. Needless to say we were very disappointed having made the effort to drive so far, offered to pay (declined) and being made to feel thoroughly unwelcome. I'm making this comment to save anyone else wasting their time trying to visit. I'm sure there are far more welcoming and pleasant Alpaca farmers happy to share their knowledge of these beautiful animals with people like us who think they are unique and lovely - Rathdowney Alpacas was VERY bad PR for alpaca farmers.
by deb26 (score: 0|6) 3985 days ago