singing sheep out of retirement for christmas single

In the true tradition of the Christmas charts, a festive single by a flock of real-life singing sheep from the Lake District is being re-released due to massive public demand.

The Baarmy Sheep of the Lake District retired after the World Cup having released three songs exclusively on the internet but are now coming out of retirement one last time to re-release last year's Christmas hit.

Jingle Bells received over 146,000 downloads when it was released last Christmas - the highest number of visitors ever to Cumbria Tourism's website, www.golakes.co.uk

And since December this year, dozens of members of the public have been contacting Cumbria Tourism asking if the sheep are releasing their Christmas single and how they can access it and the accompanying sheep pop video.

Consequently, Cumbria Tourism is making the single available again free of charge here  where people can download it, and watch the video.

A spokesman for Cumbria Tourism said: "We really had no intention of releasing this single again and the plan had been to quietly retire the Baarmy Sheep for good. We have been amazed by the amount of people who have been in touch wanting to hear the Baarmy Sheep at Christmas, so we are making it available again on our website absolutely free."

"Clearly there is still an appetite for the Baarmy Sheep and if Slade can re-release Merry Christmas Everyone after 30 years, we can do this."

The sheep received national and international coverage around the world last year, appearing on all the major television stations, Jonathan Ross and in the media in America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

The sheep were recorded baaing at several locations around the Lake District and the sounds were then mixed by local record producer Charley Darbishire.