- Climbing to high places can be dangerous, whether you’re a man or goat.
Goats are notoriously stubborn animals. They’ll (at least try) to eat almost anything, occasionally overrun Italian islands, and they climb.
Boy, do they climb.
In case you didn’t know, goats are basically a bunch of Spider-Men. Some mountain goats can scale nearly perfectly vertical cliffs with ease.
Yet, even your regular domestic goats can be quite masterful climbers. One Irish doe recently proved it.
The young goat managed to climb on top of a ruin of a medieval tower, but it couldn’t get down. After bleating for help for days atop the tower, a multi-agency rescue operation was staged.
After a couple of failed attempts, the rescuers successfully got the goat back on solid ground. They also discovered the reason why the goat couldn’t descend on its own — it had somehow broken its leg.
All’s well that ends well, however. The goat is expected to make a full recovery while animal welfare professionals try to track down its owners.
Trapped and Helpess
Northburgh Castle, located near the town of Greencastle in the north of Ireland, is a famous local attraction. This Anglo-Norman castle was constructed in 1305 and its ivy-covered ruins stand to this day.
On May 31, however, locals heard something unusual at the historical beauty spotted. The sound of bleating emanated from the ruined castle.
And they spotted it. A goat was standing on top of one of the castle’s 100-foot-tall towers.
That in itself isn’t anything all that unusual. After all, goats love to climb up to high places.
This goat, however, didn’t seem to be able to come down on its own.
Once locals noticed the goat was still up there the following day, they started to suspect something was wrong. Additionally, its vocalizations had started getting increasingly distressed.
So, the good people of Greencastle began to try and coax the goat to come down. However, the animal refused to budge, staying put and bah-ing away atop the tower.
Was it being stubborn? Or was there some other reason it couldn’t descend?
Over the weekend, local residents staged several attempts to fetch the goat. However, the ruined tower is precarious and since the locals weren’t professional rescue climbers, they didn’t dare go all the way up.
They did, however, leave some ladders and planks on some of the more challenging sections of the tower. Perhaps they would encourage the goat to come down.
A Professional Rescue
No such luck. Four days later, the goat was still bleating helplessly on top of the tower.
At this point, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) decided to get involved. The animal welfare organization had been aware of the goat for the entire time it spent up the tower, but their initial plan was to wait for it to come down on its own.
After all, that was the safest approach for people and the goat.
However, once it became clear that the goat wasn’t about to come down, the ISPCA sprung to action. The animal was likely severely dehydrated at this point and in need of professional help.
With the help of the Donegal Mountain Rescue team, ISPCA superintendent inspector Kevin McGinley climbed up the tower. Once he reached the goat, he realized the animal was quite young — only eight to nine months old.
That wasn’t why it refused to come down, though. Once the ISPCA had the goat safely on the ground, they realized it had fractured its hind leg, perhaps by slipping during the climb up.
Now, the goat — which has been nicknamed Ivy after the vines covering the tower — is staying at an ISPCA rehabilitation center. The good news is that she’s expected to make a full recovery.
Meanwhile, the ISPCA is trying to determine who Ivy’s owners are. The organization said that if they can’t find them, they’ll make sure she gets to go into a new, safe, and — above all — tower-less home.
Goats and Tourists
This isn’t the first time goats have managed to find their way up the tower. A similar incident happened in 2022, when locals saw another goat bleating away atop Northburgh Castle.
At that time, however, no rescue mission was necessary. This goat safely returned to the ground on its own.
You can’t say the same for a group of tourists who climbed the tower a few years earlier. According to local media, they couldn’t make their way down and needed the local fire department to come to rescue them.
So, the moral of the story is that you shouldn’t climb to precarious heights unless you’re a goat. And even then, it might be a bad idea.