Footage of a rare dust tunnel, also known as a 'dust devil' has been captured in a hay field in Ballyveal in Co. Carlow.

Freelance cameraman Martin Cavanagh was driving along the N80 at Ballyveal towards Co. Kildare on Wednesday when he noticed the tornado like dust cloud of hay swirling upwards in a field.

“A few cars spotted it and stopped. The field is just literally beside the road,” he told the Irish Times.

“It obviously started at one side of the field, because you could see some of the hay on the electric wires, and moved across to the other,” he said. “It faded after a minute and a half or two minutes.”

Met Éireann forecaster John Eagleton explained how dust tunnels emerge from the ground up, while tornadoes descend from the sky.

“They are not a common occurrence of the Irish climate,” he said. “But we do get them sometimes.”

He added that dust tunnels are created by a thermal effect during warm and sunny weather.

According to American Meteorological Society, dust devils occasionally are strong enough to cause minor damage.

In 2011, a Cork man recorded footage of a dust devil in Ballycotton also.

Watch Martin Cavanagh's footage below: