As a learner driver, there are endless hazards you have to look out for every time you get in your car and prepare yourself for another unpredictable journey.
You constantly have to be on the lookout for pedestrians and other cars which might be driving a bit too close for comfort, not to mention any rogue animals that might decide to take a leap of faith across the road just as you’re driving along.
What you probably wouldn’t expect to have to be on the lookout for though is a sheep highway – because let’s be honest, who’s ever heard of one of those?
One learner driver found that’s exactly what they should have been looking out for though, when they ended up driving down one by accident in Kerry, Ireland.
The sheep highway in question, unlike the name suggests, isn’t actually a road specifically meant for the woolly creatures. Instead, it’s a pedestrian pathway to Dunquin Pier, named after the sheep that live in the surrounding hills.
The poor motorist ended up driving to the bottom of the path, only to realise there was no way back and they were stuck at the jump off point to Great Blasket Island.
Blasket Island Ferries captured the hilarious moment before posting it on Facebook for all to see:
The post read:
Well it’s that time of year again where the no through sign at the top of the pedestrian pathway down to Dunquin Pier gets ignored. This learner driver has managed to get themselves fairly stuck.
Good news that our Ferries weren’t running today, it would have been a catastrophe trying to bring people back from the island.
How the learner driver got themselves into this conundrum is anyone’s guess, with the ferry company writing beneath their post that there are ‘no through signs’ and ‘two concrete bollards’ at the top of the sheep highway.
They added that a car can ‘barely squeeze through’ the gap between the bollards, saying putting even more bollards ‘because of the one in a million that ignore’ the warnings to inconvenience pedestrians is ‘silly’.
The company later confirmed the car had been removed from the pathway, and had been abandoned at the top of the pier as ‘we imagine that the clutch is probably burnt out’. Poor guy.
Who’s going to get in touch with Specsavers to tell them we’ve figured out what their next advert should be?
Tagline: Get some specs so you don’t end up feeling sheepish… Okay maybe not, I’ll let someone else sort out the marketing side of things.
Reckon I should get the commission for it though.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).