Some 283,000 people attended this year’s National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly.
This year’s attendance figure is up 2,000 people on the 2015 event, where 281,000 people made it to Ratheniska in Co. Laois.
The 85th running of what is now Europe’s largest outdoor event saw record-breaking crowds attend this year’s three-day event.
Day One saw 100,000 people flock through the gates, while 111,000 people attended on Day Two.
Day Three saw 72,000 people attend the Ploughing and after a very wet day yesterday the sun made a welcome visit to Tullamore for the final day of the event.
Speaking at the close of business, Anna Marie McHugh said that traffic to and from the site has been moving well all week and credit is due to An Garda Siochana in no small part and the traffic management plan in place.
“With the record numbers attending, everyone expected to meet some holdups, but the traffic was kept flowing at all times with only the very minimum of delays. We are delighted with the overall attendance figure this year.
“The three days ran very smoothly and the feedback from early on, via social media, has been extremely positive.
“Both on Twitter and Facebook, #Ploughing16 has been trending all week and thousands upon thousands have been updating their status or uploading pictures.”
Most successful championships ever !!! Total 3 day figure 283,000 !!!#Ploughing16
— National Ploughing (@NPAIE) September 22, 2016
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Taking to Twitter, the National Ploughing Association said that it was the most successful ploughing championships ever.
The final day of the ploughing saw a Waterford woman, Phyllis McGovern, win the National Brown Bread Baking competition.
Eabha Campbell of Truagh, Co. Monaghan retained her title in the National Junior Baking competition for a second year in a row.
In the region of €35m was expected to be spent over the course of the three days by visitors to this year’s Ploughing.
