About Us

There has always been a great interest in vintage machinery in the parish of DeCourcey situated on the picturesque southern Irish coastline between Kinsale and Bandon in County Cork. For many years the Corcoran family have been running a threshing outside their pub in Ballinadee in aid of cancer charities.

However in 2007 Connie Coughlan from Garretstown won a 1965 Massey Ferguson 35 with a €5 ticket in a raffle at the national Ploughing Championships.

It was decided that he would arrive in Ballinadee with the tractor to open the threshing at Corcoran’s. When he did so, he had a convoy of vintage tractors following him and so the first tractor run was born.

Several more tractor runs followed over the years and eventually DeCourcey Classic and Vintage Club was formed in June of 2010.

During our first years the club held a number of events in aid of local charities including a calendar sale, a road runs and of course our main event on the August bank holiday Monday 2011.

Earlier in 2011 the club was planning our big event for that year. It was realised that this event must offer something different to the many vintage rallies around the country.

It was decided to run a harvest working day and vintage rally. This was an easy decision due to the fact that quite a number of reaper and binders and vintage combine harvesters were restored and maintained in full working order in the locality.

Club member Jim O’Regan from Barrells Cross near Kinsale immediately offered the use of his land and a portion of his winter barley crop for the event.

As the summer progressed the ripening barley was watched closely in anticipation of the upcoming harvest day. Finally Bank Holiday Monday 1st August arrived and what a line-up of machines we had working in the field.

 

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