A STAG is on the loose in rural Fingal after evading capture from a pack of hounds and mounted horses by legging it up the main street in Garristown and leaping off a shop roof!

The Irish Red Deer was being pursued by up to 60 mounted members of the Ward Union Hunt after being set free near Palmerstown last Friday, January 13.

Chairperson of the Ward Union Hunt, Oliver Russell said the de-antlered deer ’took a fairly circuitous route and came in the back of Adamstown’.

‘It arrived in Garristown near the football pitch and went down the main road,’ Mr Russell said.

While Mr Russell was not there, he said he understood the deer then leaped over a wall and landed on a roof.

‘He jumped a wall but there was a drop in the ground the far side and he landed on a low roof,’ he said, saying it was probably at the back of Gough’s shop. ‘He jumped off and skedaddled away ending up beyond the graveyard,’ Mr Russell said.

‘It’s not unusual for a deer to end up on the road but it is unusual to end up on a roof but there is no talk of damage to the roof or to the deer, it was seen heading on,’ he said.

Mr Russell emphasised that the hunt was licensed under the Wildlife Act and the stags remain unharmed, while an officer from the Department of the Environment is on hand to ensure that is the case.

The hunters will now have to wait a month before giving chase to the deer again.