The scenery looked like something out of a tourist brochure. Green pastures sprinkled with a few ewes and their lambs, surrounded by yellow broom hedges, were spanned by a deep blue sky. A little country road lined by stone walls led down to one of the North's most spectacular spots, Murlough Bay Nature Reserve on the north Antrim coast.
And then there was the sign, pinned to a big ball of hay covered in black plastic. "Road closed due to foot-and-mouth alert. Essential visitors only." Overlooking the little road with its stern sign was the farm at the centre of the North's latest foot-and-mouth alert. A neat beige building with wooden outhouses belonging to Mr Pat McCarry, who was said to be "devastated" when 18 of his 325-strong sheep flock showed blisters consistent with the disease.
The little road was guarded by two forestry service officials in a yellow truck. So far they had granted passage to only three vehicles carrying teams of vets taking blood samples from the flock. One of the forestry workers, Mr Harry Hutchinson, said the news was a "terrible blow for everybody".
"This is just cruel. We would have only had one day left of the surveillance zone which was established after the Cushendall outbreak three weeks ago. And now, instead of lifting it, this area will be paralysed again for the foreseeable future."
His colleague, Mr Derek McGill, found it "very strange" that they had not been instructed to put disinfectant down along the newly-established three-kilometre restriction zone or to spray the tyres of passing cars. "I guess they are waiting for the results from Pirbright before deciding anything. Still, it wouldn't have done any harm as a precaution."
In a little outhouse belonging to the neighbouring farm, four local farmers were holding a "war council", as Mr Connor McQuaid called it. Describing their neighbour, Mr McCarry, as a "man of the highest integrity", they said they felt helpless by the random way in which the disease seemed to strike.
"If at least it had happened before the lambing season, it wouldn't be so heart-breaking to see all the hard work go down the drain. But sure, it's not just us who are suffering. The businesses living from tourism round here have as good as closed. The few tourists that still come down here have had to be turned away this morning," said another farmer, who just wanted to be known as Anthony.
As they were talking, news spread that another farm at neighbouring Torr Head was at the centre of a foot-and-mouth alert. The owner, Ms Oonagh McKenry, felt she was being dealt a "double-whammy". Ms McKenry runs a B&B on her working sheep farm.