This weekend, while out in the garden clearing a build-up of dead leaves and layers of last-season’s montbretia foliage, I uncovered a prickly, but very welcome surprise. A hibernating hedgehog! Its spines flexed involuntarily, once… twice… and then it was still again. I whipped out the smartphone and took one quick photograph (above), before replacing the leaf-litter, tucking….

Reports suggest that the earliest record of hedgehogs in Ireland stem from County Waterford at around the time that the Normans arrived in the 13th century. However and whenever these endearing little mammals arrived they have certainly become a firmly established native and something of a favourite with people. Hedgehogs….