discover
an amazing
world of
craft & colour
at Ireland’s
oldest
weaving mill
store, café & tour
www.avoca.ie
browse the
visitor centre,
Take a free
tour through
our working
weaving mill
and round off
your visit in
our store &
cafe .
Or simply cut
straight to the
retail therapy.
this is
avoca
The Mill at Avoca
started back in 1723
as a co-operative
where local farmers
could spin and weave
their yarn into tweeds
and blankets. Now it’s
grown into an Irish
family-run business
that spans one of the
world’s oldest surviving
manufacturing
companies and Ireland’s
most exciting stores,
foodhalls and cafés.
Here at the Mill,
you’ll find a fabulous
store with tax-free
shopping available, a
gorgeous café and you
can experience for
yourself the magical
transformation of the
age-old craft of weaving.
Our world-famous
Avoca throws and
rugs are found across
the globe, as are our
fashion, homewares
and accessories. We’ve
a food label with dozens
of delicious products
and there are Avoca
ceramics, perfumes,
soaps... even a worldclass garden
Avoca gave us our
name - it roots us in our
heritage and colours
everything we do.
ONCE UPON A TIME...
there was a Mill at Avoca Village in County
Wicklow, the Garden of Ireland. Set up in 1723, local
farmers used it to make blankets from their own
flocks’ wools.
However, colour soon came to Avoca as vivid
natural vegetable dyes in reds, greens, and yellows
brightened the Mill’s rugs and throws. These were
soon recognised as Avoca Handweavers’ signature
hues and the Mill thrived through the 1920s and
30s when it was run by a marvellous trio of sisters,
the Wynns.
By the 1960s however, it had fallen into disrepair.
Handweaving was dying and the looms grew
largely silent. Until a young couple with a younger
family took a flyer in the mid-seventies and the
rest, as others might say, is history. It should have
been madness. He was a lawyer, she a teacher;
they knew nothing about weaving, but they saw an
opportunity. And soon the looms were humming
again and Avoca Handweavers began to colour the
world once more. The parents were joined by their
children and the Partt family now run Ireland’s
most exciting stores and cafés, as well as the Mill at
Avoca.
Thankfully, we need power looms to keep up with
demand. As well as throws and scarves, our weaves
are turned into bags, cushions and more, as lots of
new ideas come on stream. Every step of the way,
even with powered weaving, hand crafted skill and
care is needed, from warping the yarn to winding
bobbins to finishing and labelling. This is one of the
things that makes Avoca so special: it’s a hands-on
world of colour.
* * * * * * * * * *
You can take a tour and view the whole weaving
process at first hand. Admission is free and it is
a great opportunity to see our looms in full flight,
talk to our weavers and, of course, to have a chance
to get one of our famous blankets right from
source. Maybe even get its weaver to sign it.
A Brief Guide To Weaving
YARNS
It all starts with the yarn. We mostly use Lambswool
and Mohair for weaving, as well as blends with
Cashmere, Angora or Merino.
Lambswool is taken from the first shearing of a
sheep at around 7 months. The yarn is soft and
elastic, and so wonderfully adaptable. Mohair is
from the Angora goat. We weave the yarn in loop
form. After washing, the blankets are brushed
to break the loops and create the traditional soft,
luxurious feel.
WARPING & WINDING
In weaving, you’re effectively criss-crossing
alternate threads. The ones from top to bottom are
called the Warp. Side to side is the Weft. Before we
can start weaving, the yarn needs to be prepped. We
wind it from cones into pirns for the bobbins of our
hand looms and Hattersley looms. This gives the
weft.
And Spool Winders supply the 384 cones needed for
the Warping Frame, where the yarn is lined up on a
Beam (like a big spool) which the looms use. It can
take up to two days to complete a warp.
TYING IN
This is a meticulous process: each thread on a Beam
is fed in sequence through the “eye” and then tied
onto the previous warp. There are approximately
2000 threads in each warp, so do the maths.
WEAVING:
We use a variety of looms from hand looms, through
Hattersleys to Power Looms. The Fly Shuttle Hand
Looms we use have been the same for over 150
years and are able to weave about 18 metres a day.
It takes a skilled weaver a whole day to create and
finish an Avoca Blanket on the hand looms from
start to end.
The Hattersley Loom is a development up from the
pure hand loom and ours now have had motors
attached, though still need hands-on operation.
These Hattersleys were destined for India, but
somehow got diverted to Avoca where they are still
used to create our unique scarves.
We took on our first two power looms in 1988,
followed by two more in the early 1990s to keep up
with the increasing demand. It takes about 5 hours
to set up a new pattern on the looms, but they can
run off up 100 metres of gorgeous fabric in a day.
FINISHING
Once the runs have been cut to size, the raw throws
are hand-checked and repaired one at a time. Then
washed to remove natural oils and make them
softer; and perhaps brushed if they’re Mohair.
Finally, the fringes are twisted for the familiar
flourish. We label, bag and box them for their
journey around the world. (Or just to our stores, of
course.)
Mill Tour, Store
&and cafÈe
The pretty, old stone buildings of the Mill with the
stream that once powered it running alongside,
still house the weaving as well as a store and café.
Sit outside by the river and take it all in.
We’ve a Visitor Centre with a history of the Mill,
featuring vintage photographs, film and other
bits and bobs from the last couple of hundred
years. It starts a free tour where you can see all
the weaving processes at first hand and chat to
our weavers above the clickety-clacking. From the
original bins of yarn to the final labels being sewn
on, it all happens here. This is a real working mill
as it’s been since 1723.
Afterwards, stroll over to the store, where we can
arrange tax-free shopping and even ship it home.
There’s an Avoca Café, famous for its delicious
lunches and home baking. Explore a treasure
trove of clothing, soft furnishings, ceramics,
gifts, food and much more. Get your hands on
one of the throws or scarves. A pretty, separate
dining room upstairs, The Hay Loft can cater for
larger groups, so they can all stay together.
The picturesque village of Avoca itself was the
fictional home of BBC TV’s “Ballykissangel”.
MADE
BY
AVOCA
We have our own busy
Design Studio which
creates fresh patterns
for throws and scarves
to fashion, knits, soaps,
candles, ceramics and
a list so long it’ll start
to bore. And that’s
something we try never
to do.
Our fashion range,
Avoca Anthology is
found in independent
boutiques around the
world, as are our Avoca
Nest homewares and
accessories. Avoca’s
focus is on natural
yarns. Our ideas
resonate with colour
and whimsical detail.
It means when you find
stuff with our name on
it, that it’s uniquely ours.
For many people, Avoca
is all about the food
and our foodhalls, delis
and cafés are awardwinning and popular.
You can take home
the recipes with the
best-selling Avoca café
cookbooks.
This is part of what
makes Avoca different
- and worth exploring.
You’ll find all this and
more in our stores. Take
some of it with you.
is for avoca
Hello
As well as our Mill at Avoca Village, You’ll find Avoca
Stores & Cafés at 10 locations across Ireland, from
Belfast up north to Avoca Moll’s Gap right down
south on the Ring of Kerry; from Avoca Letterfrack
out west, over in Connemara to several stores and
cafés across Dublin and Wicklow. Even a worldclass garden at Mount Usher in Ashford.
Avoca Store, Café & Mill Tour
Avoca Village, Co Wicklow, Ireland
Tel: +353 402 35105
Admission to the vistor centre & tour is free.
Summer opening:
Shop 9.00am - 6.00pm;
Cafe 9.30am - 5.30pm.
Winter opening:
Shop 9.30am - 5.30pm;
Cafe 9.30am - 5.00pm.
All our Stores & Cafés open 7 days.
To find out more, please visit avoca.ie where there’s
an Online Store for all things Avoca, as well as
maps, pix, videos and stories.
www.avoca.ie