Castle Milk Moorit
History of the Breed
During the early years of the twentieth century the late Sir Jock Buchanan-Jardine began a breeding programme on his Castlemilk Estate in Dumfriesshire. Using Manx Loghtan, moorit Shetland and wild Mouflon, he developed a breed to beautify his parkland and provide fine, kemp free moorit coloured wool.
On the death of Sir John Buchanan-Jardine in 1970 the majority of the flock was culled and a few dispersed, including six ewes and a ram which were bought by Joe Henson at the Cotswold Farm Park. All today’s Castlemilk Moorits are descended from these few dispersed sheep.
Breed Description
The Castlemilk Moorit is one of the larger primitive (type) breeds with mature ewes weighing in the region of 40kgs. (85lbs.) and rams 55kgs. (120lbs.) The head is clean and level between the ears. The ewes exhibit two uniform and wide spreading horns which are much heavier and evenly spiralled in the rams, avoiding the cheeks.
The neck should be well set on the shoulders following on to a straight back and well sprung ribs; the tail is naturally short and narrow. Both sexes should be upstanding on clean fine-boned legs, with naturally small feet. It’s whole appearance is graceful and well balanced; they are extremely agile and fleet footed.
Light brown or moorit in colour, they have definite mouflon pattern markings to include white underparts around the eyes, lower jaw, belly, knees and inside lower leg and tail together with a rump patch.
This breed description is flexible enough to allow the preservation of some diversity in the breed, this is especially important as the breed has a very small gene pool having been reduced to such a small population in the 1970s.
A process called 'card grading' is used to assess whether a sheep meets the breed description. Please see dedicated page with details on card grading, a downloadable form and the typical variations in the breed.
During the early years of the twentieth century the late Sir Jock Buchanan-Jardine began a breeding programme on his Castlemilk Estate in Dumfriesshire. Using Manx Loghtan, moorit Shetland and wild Mouflon, he developed a breed to beautify his parkland and provide fine, kemp free moorit coloured wool.
On the death of Sir John Buchanan-Jardine in 1970 the majority of the flock was culled and a few dispersed, including six ewes and a ram which were bought by Joe Henson at the Cotswold Farm Park. All today’s Castlemilk Moorits are descended from these few dispersed sheep.
Breed Description
The Castlemilk Moorit is one of the larger primitive (type) breeds with mature ewes weighing in the region of 40kgs. (85lbs.) and rams 55kgs. (120lbs.) The head is clean and level between the ears. The ewes exhibit two uniform and wide spreading horns which are much heavier and evenly spiralled in the rams, avoiding the cheeks.
The neck should be well set on the shoulders following on to a straight back and well sprung ribs; the tail is naturally short and narrow. Both sexes should be upstanding on clean fine-boned legs, with naturally small feet. It’s whole appearance is graceful and well balanced; they are extremely agile and fleet footed.
Light brown or moorit in colour, they have definite mouflon pattern markings to include white underparts around the eyes, lower jaw, belly, knees and inside lower leg and tail together with a rump patch.
This breed description is flexible enough to allow the preservation of some diversity in the breed, this is especially important as the breed has a very small gene pool having been reduced to such a small population in the 1970s.
A process called 'card grading' is used to assess whether a sheep meets the breed description. Please see dedicated page with details on card grading, a downloadable form and the typical variations in the breed.