I have been sketching sheep for years. Strange then that 'White with a Black Face', was the best I could come up with when asked to describe the escapee I put in my neighbours field a few days ago. Having just spent an hour sketching sheep grazing in the old graveyard at St Mary's, I found myself again in need of a sheepdog. On leaving I had a look for the human skull supposedly hidden in the hedgerow. The book "Bernard Davey's Mourne" describes how a walking guide makes use of it to startle his companions. I didn't find the skull, but I did manage to separate twin lambs from their mother. I kept chasing them further away as I descended the narrow steps leading to the Mourne coastal path. By walking along the rocks I eventually managed to get in front of the lambs and chase them back up the steps to the graveyard.

Sheep skulls are much easier to find and are a very useful resource for an artist, or student interested in anatomy. In addition to sheep, people feature in a lot of my sketches, so I've been looking for a human skull to practice on. The murderer William Hare who is buried in Kilkeel could have got me one. Hare along with his accomplish William Burke sold the corpses of his victims to Edinburgh medical students in 1827. Hare later escaped hanging by turning Kings evidence on Burke and fled to Ireland to avoid a lynching. He was recognised by Dr Reid, a former medical student, hiding in the poor house in Kilkeel. Now a days the internet is the place to go in order to obtain a reasonably priced skull a with good set of teeth. The one I have is made from PVC and unlike the sheep skulls I find, it didn't require maggots to clean it up.