Castlemilk Moorit Sheep

Castlemilk Moorit Sheep at Quin Bosca

Castlemilk Shetland, Moorit Shetland

by Dr John

My wife, Hilary, and I bought our first three ewe lambs from Devon at the end of the summer, 2004.  They are registered with the Castlemilk Moorit Sheep Society, but because of the rarity of this primitive breed of sheep, the chances of purchasing a registered ram from anyhwere in the South West seemed extremely remote.  You can imagine how fortunate we considered ourselves to be when, in 2005, we located another four ewes with a magnificent ram, called Samuel.  This had given the original girls time to mature before establishing our rare-breed flock.

The history of this sheep began early in the twentieth century on the Castlemilk Estate in Dumfriesshire.  The breeding programme used

Manx Loghtan,

Moorit Shetland and

wild Mouflon sheep.

Sir John Bughanan-Jardine developed then to beautify his parkland estate and to provide fine, kemp-free, moorit-coloured wool.  As a bonus, the  meat is very lean with a fine-grained texture and a gamey flavour.  Upon his death in 1970, a foundation flock of six ewes and one ram was saved.  These few formed the basis for all of today's registered sheep.

The Castlemilk Moorit is one of the larger of the 'primitive' breeds.  A mature ram may reach 120lb (55kg) and the wews 85lb (40kg).  All the sheep are horned, with the rams having heavy, even spirals of impressive stature.  The wool is darker at the base so that newborn lambs and shorn sheep stand out from the paler, 'bleached' unshorn sheep.  With naturally short tails, the lambs do not require docking, and the sheep are generally extremely resistant fly-strike and foot rot. 

They do like shelter from rain and will, I would bet, beat most other breed to get under cover from even a shower.  The newly-lambed ewes and the senior rams can appear to be aggressive but, on the whole, they are an intelligent and agile sheep with graceful, well-balanced movements.  These sheep can be better controlled by a food bucket rather than by a dog.

The Mouflon-pattern markings are consistent in all the sheep and this gives a very uniform flock appearance.  On the background light brown or moorit colour are white areas under the belly and lower jaw.  White is characteristically around the eyes, knees, inside lower legs, and tails, with distinctive rump patches.  Shorn sheep have an almost tiny deer-like appearance at first glance and it was this appearance that led to our plans to own a flock of these long-lived and productive little sheep at Quin Bosca.

Comments

[Alistair Kerr]

Hullo John,

I have a paddock at my house in the country that for all sorts of reasons I do not want to leave unused. At the moment I have to mow it at least twice a year. It is good, lush grazing of more than an acre, surrounded by walls on three sides and a fence on the fourth. Because a river (the Witham) runs nearby, the grazing is always lush; even in the hottest summer. There are some large, mature trees round the edge and a small stable. It sounds a good case for 'conservation grazing'. However, would Castlemilk Moorits be suitable?

One misgiving that I have is the Houdini-like propensity to escape that some primitive sheep breeds have. If Castlemilks share these, they would not be suitable. One side of the paddock adjoins a village street of small houses with back gardens. Most of these are separated from the paddock by walls, but not all. The sheep would be unpopular if they invaded these. Another side, protected by high walls, is my garden, which is rather special and sometimes open to the public. It contains a number of rare plants and trees, which could be attractive to sheep. One side of the paddock is on a street; if the sheep were nervous, they might be disturbed by traffic, passers-by and their dogs.

However if Castlemilks do not have these drawbacks, I would be happy to consider running some on the paddock and help to continue this interesting and historic breed. Please let me know what you think.

Yours Sincerely,

Alistair Kerr

[vicky]

Hi John
Very interesting, didn't realise you had as many animals now! Hope you are well, miss you!!! but not some of the team! HA HA

regards, Vicky Trelease