advanced in the development of wool from a short inner fleece found beneath the coarse outer hair of its wild ancestors. [Ponting, 1980]. While no one knows precisely how or when the sheep arrived on St. Kilda, archeological evidence leads them to believe it has been there for several thousand years. With certainty it has survived in total isolation on the uninhabited isle of Soay since historic times. For much of its past it had human neighbors on Hirta, a larger, adjacent island, but because of Soay’s inaccessibility the two had relatively little contact and the sheep’s evolution was driven entirely by nature and the environment and not by any form of artificial selection by man. As a result the Soay is now a living archive of the origins of domestic sheep and an undiluted genetic reservoir for the future.

Figure 2. Soay approaching from the South. The tip of the Cambir of Hirta is to the far right. Stac Biorach and
Soay Stac (with the arch) are in Soay Sound between the two Islands.

Historically the crofters of neighboring Hirta gathered Soay wool in the summer when it was naturally shed. The fleece was softer and finer than that of their husbanded sheep and it was used by the women to make undergarments. The dark brown and tan fibers may also have been combined with their white wool which was spun into yarn and later woven into tweed cloth.²

The men used the St. Kilda Tweed to fabricate their family’s clothing, to pay the Laird his annual rent and during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to trade with seasonal tourists. During the summer several excursions were mounted to the outlying islands, including Soay, one specifically for gathering wool. Landing was (and still is) treacherous and could best be done when the seas were calm and the wind was just a whisper. Barefoot, the cragsmen of Hirta scrambled onto the rocks from their bobbing boat at the one landing site that gave them a relatively safe foothold and access to the summit. Tethered together for safety they made their way, over immense boulders and

             figure 3. South facing wall of Soay (to the left) looking through the strait,
     Hirta (the Cambir) is to the right, Boreray appears beyond the gap four miles in the distance.

difficult, steep terrain to the sloped plateau and the sheep above. Because the forbidding rock faces rose directly out of the surf not only was there often no landing on the the island, there was no place to safely moor their open row boat. Tied  to the cliff face it could easily be smashed to pieces, stranding them indefinitely. Therefore, the party, including dogs, was left behind with their provisions and sheltered from the ever-changing weather in small cleits (stone huts) built for these visits, they stayed a week or more.

                                       Figure 4. The south facing slope and  the summit
                                                                 of Soay where the sheep are often seen.

While the wool gathering was extremely hazardous work, both man and beast could fall or be blown over the high bluffs into the crashing ocean below, it was also exhilarating and this annual trek was a high point of the year. The dogs were trained to chase and hold the sheep until reached by its owner and when the fleece had been rooed (plucked) it was released to return to grazing. At a pre-arranged time, weather permitting, the boat returned for the men, their dogs and their wool and they were rowed back to Hirta where their bounty was stored until winter.

           Figure 4a Detail south facing slope of Soay.  Four ewes can be seen grazing among the boulders.
  Wool gathering here would have been extremely challenging.  July 2004

During the long, dark days of November and December the village was abuzz with activity and the stored wool was taken out of the rafters, byres and cleits. At festive community gatherings, which usually lasted late into the night, it was picked clean of debris, often by the children and carded.  It was then divided among the village households. Every cottage along "main street" had at least one spinning wheel; many had two, usually in the kitchen. There, by a smoldering peat fire, the women did their spinning. In the mid-nineteenth century the art of knitting was introduced to St. Kilda and thereafter the crofter’s wives used the handspun Soay yarn to knit gloves, socks, stockings and scarves. The men wove the yarn into cloth on very simple wooden handlooms, which were stored away in the off season. For two or three months in the spring nearly every man on Hirta sat by his weaving many days from dawn until dark.

"Main Street" St. Kilda. Three of six restored 1860 cottages. Round stone structure in foreground is an earlier
house from the 1830's.  August 2003

Because the sheep on Soay were the property of  the Laird and a tax had to be paid for each one taken, they were only rarely hunted for meat. To the St. Kildans Soay meat was a delicacy and a welcomed change to their diet of birds, eggs and their own domestic mutton. New Years was the traditional occasion for such a feast. After the turn of the twentieth Century, as the population dwindled and the number of able-bodied men declined, making their traditional means of subsistence increasingly difficult, more summer hunting expeditions to Soay seem to have been made. As many as a dozen sheep were captured live and transported back to Hirta where they were slaughtered, butchered and divided among the families. The meat that was not consumed immediately was salted stored in cleits and later shared.

From prehistoric times until the middle of the nineteenth Century Soay Sheep are believed to have only been found on the 244-acre island that bore its name. During the mid 1800’s, with the advent of the steam engine, yachting became increasingly popular and St. Kilda became a much sought after exotic destination. Near the turn of the twentieth Century a few wealthy visitors took an interest in the little brown sheep and began to import small numbers to the mainland. These were taken to private estates and parklands where they were often selectively bred to meet an individual owner’s criteria of what a Soay sheep should look like. Today these sheep are referred to as “Park Soay”. The most widely known of these flocks was kept at Woburn Abbey. Imported in 1910 by zoologist H.A. Russell, the 11th Duke of Bedford, the flock was culled of all polled or scurred rams or ewes and all animals that were not brown mouflon (wild) pattern, in keeping with his (or possibly the Duchesses) idea of how a true Soay should appear. This has misled many over the years to believe that polled or scurred ewes and blonde, self-colored or animals with white markings were not true Soay.

Figure 5 Woburn Abbey Deer Park where the
Duke of Bedford’s flock of Soay still is today.

This flock is still at Woburn Park in Bedfordshire, England where it has existed continuously since its importation in 1910.

Somewhat earlier (prior to 1900) another important flock was kept at Rushmore, the estate of Lt. General Fox Pitt-Rivers in Cranbourn Chase, Dorset. Pitt-Rivers was considered by some during this era of amateur scientists, to be the “father of British Archeology” and was known as an innovator who valued detailed and complete records. He realized that the context in which an artifact was found was often as important as the artifact itself. To better interpret the fragments he unearthed at the Romano-British sites on his estates, he used bones from his own Soay flock, which he recognized as an ancient breed, for comparisons. These examinations gave him a better understanding of the early farmers who had inhabited this part of Britain.

From these estates, the Duke of Bedford, Fox Pitt-Rivers and other wealthy landowners, the sheep gradually found their way into different parklands throughout the UK.

In August 1930 the few remaining residents of Hirta left for what they believed would be an easier life on the mainland, ending nearly two thousand years of continuous occupancy. Their livestock, a few cows and a large number of domestic sheep, were taken off the island with them to be sold at market in Oban. The few remaining animals were shot, leaving the island’s vegetation to grow unchecked. Shortly thereafter, in 1931, after six centuries of MacLeod ownership, MacLeod of MacLeod sold the islands to the Earl of Dumfries, later the 5th Marquess of Bute, an avid ornithologist. The following year the new landowner hired a group of islanders who eagerly returned to their old home for the duration of the summer. Their task was to capture and transfer wild sheep from Soay to Hirta and by August a flock of 107 (of mixed sexes and ages) had been moved. This was the first time in memory that Soay sheep existed on both islands. By 1952 the population had grown to 1114.

Between the evacuation in 1930 and the beginning of World War II in 1939 there are indications that some animals were removed to the mainland but there are apparently no records of where they went and thus following them is all but impossible.

After the War, in 1945, John Crichton-Stuart (the 5th Marquess of Bute), a dedicated conservationist and the owner of St. Kilda, was elected president of the Zoological Society of Glasgow (now The Zoological Society of Glasgow and West of Scotland). His early gift to the new zoo, prior to its opening in 1947 was a small flock of Soay sheep.³

   

Figure 6. Sheep graze the meadow in the Village area on Hirta in August

Upon his death in 1957 the Marquess bequeathed the St. Kilda Islands to the National Trust for Scotland and from its earliest days the Trust has supported the research of scientists who have studied (and continue to study) the sheep with great interest. An annual census of the sheep began in 1955 and continues today. In 1963 Dr. Jewell and his colleagues on the Soay Research team brought a flock back to the mainland so that they could continue their studies in more detail. In selecting the animals they made great effort to get a truly representative flock of the sheep as they found them on Hirta; white markings, polled and horned ewes, self-colored, tan and brown mouflon patterns, etc. These Jewell referred to as “Hirta Soay”. This flock was split into two groups. One went to the Royal Zoological Society of Edinburgh (The Edinburgh Zoo) and the other went to Whipsnade Zoo in England, which had kept Soay sheep since the 1950s. Eventually the Edinburgh flock was transferred to the Animal Breeding Research Organization in Roslin, Scotland and the animals at Whipsnade went to Reading University west of London. From there small groups were dispersed to several keepers including Joe Henson at Cotswold Farm Park and Dr. Peter Reynolds at Butser Hill Ancient Farm. A small flock Dr. Jewell took with him to Royal Holloway College. Eventually these made their way into the hands of enthusiasts in England and Wales. Some of the Edinburgh flock ultimately went to the Nature Conservancy at Bangor in northern Wales.

Figure 7. A group of St. Kilda rams, Soay and Boreray, on a hillside in Wales. The Boreray,
seen here in the middle, has the typical markings and coloring of the breed. The other rams
illustrate the variety of color and markings found in the Soay.

While it has been the policy of the National Trust to not allow the removal of sheep from Soay or Hirta, it is known that a few have come off Hirta since the 1960’s, often orphaned lambs “adopted” by military personnel stationed on the island.

From flocks on the mainland animals have made their way to other parts of the world. In 1974 a group of four animals was exported to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Ontario, Canada and in 1975 a group of twenty went from Knebworth Flock to a Mr.Grom near Frankfurt, Germany. Grom,  who had already acquired ten sheep from European Zoos, was eager to participate in the RBST's registration program. This is believed to have been the first export to a private breeder in Europe. [ARK, 1975]. In 1990 a second group was exported to North America this time to Montreal. Ten years later the Montreal flock was exported from Canada to the United States. The Soay is now also found in Belgium and the Netherlands with a few in France. On farms in all of these countries the Soay is valued by handspinners for its soft wool, by conservationists for its reclamation of sensitive lands from the over-growth of scrub and by specialty butchers who have found there is a demand for its flavorful low-fat, low-cholesterol meat. It is also found in wildlife parks and interpretive centers throughout the UK. Although the Soay is no longer considered endangered by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, numbers worldwide remain very limited.

Figure 8. Part of the Little Gaerllwyd Flock, remnant of Peter Jewell's
original 1963 flock of Hirta Soay kept at Holloway College now in Monmouthshire Wales.

This little sheep, “arguably the oldest and best preserved cultural artifact in Scotland” is a unique living link to our prehistoric past.⁴ As such, it enables archeologists to get a clearer picture of how advanced Neolithic agricultural practices had become. With its short but fine wool researchers can see early man’s deliberate attempts to refine the thin hair covered undercoat of its ancestors, possibly the European Mouflon (Ovis musimon), into a true fleece. The Soay also remains important for a number of other reasons not the least of which is the contributions it has made to research in the study of immunology. Because of its closed but widely diverse gene pool, its blood serum has been ideally suited to antibody research. This same genetic diversity, which has allowed the Soay to adapt to a very harsh and often hostile environment, may also provide future farmers with the building blocks they need to bring breeds back to the more diversified and less specialized agricultural practices from which they have drifted. As livestock animals have been selectively bred to meet current economic demands much valuable genetic material has been cast aside in the name of economic expediency. Modern breeds of dairy cows for example, produce tremendous amounts of milk, but can only thrive on the richest pasturelands and diets supplemented with expensive grains. As prime farmland is lost to urban housing, these rich pasturelands become increasingly scarce. When the pendulum of agricultural fashion swings back to less specialization and the use of more marginal lands, the primitive breeds once again become important. For this reason breeds such as the Soay are a safeguard against an uncertain future and should be protected. Unlike modern strains of sheep, the Soay is not dependent on man for anything. Its adaptability and survival in the extraordinarily harsh conditions found on its rocky out post on “the edge of the world” have made it adaptable and self-sufficient; this may very well be the trait that we most value in the future.

Figure 9 Foggy Morning Village Meadow Hirta, August 2003

For more pictures of Soay Sheep on St. Kilda, please visit our St. Kilda Soay Sheep Photo Gallery

References:
Alderson, Lawrence. 1978 Chance to Survive, Rare Breeds in a Changing World. Cameron & Taylor, London

Allan, Richard J. P. Scottish island sheep, The ARK, Vol. XI, No.6 June 1984

Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 1999 A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals. Cambridge University Press, London, . Pg. 71

Clutton-Brock,Tim and Pemberton, Josephine,(eds) 2004 ,Soay Sheep, Dynamics and Selection in an Island Population. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Darling, F. Frasier, & Boyd, J. Morton. 1964 The Highlands and Islands. Collins, London

Harman, Mary.1987 An Island Called Hirte, A history and Culture of St Kilda to 1930, Isle of Skye, Maclean Press

Jewell, Peter, The Soay Sheep (Part 1), The ARK, Vol. VII No.2 February 1980

Jewell, Peter. The Soay Sheep (Part 2), The ARK, Vol. VII No.3 March 1980

Jewell., P A, Milner, C and Morton-Boyd, J 1974. Island survivors- the ecology of the Soay sheep of St. Kilda, University of London, Athlone Press, London

Ponting, Kenneth. Sheep of the World in Colour, Pool, Dorset: Blanford Press, 1980 pg.69

Quine, David A. 1982 St. Kilda Revisited, Frome: Dowland Press

Quine, David A. 1988 St. Kilda Portraits,

Revised Nomination of St. Kilda for Inclusion in the World Heritage Site List, Crown Copyright 2003

Ryder, M.L. Sheep and Man. 1983 Gerald Duckworth and Co., London

Steele, Tom.1990  Life and Death of St. Kilda, The moving story of a vanished island community. Fontana Paperbacks

The ARK, Vol. II, No. 9, pg. 213

Correspondence between Kathie Miller and C.M. Williams, Wales
Correspondence between Kathie Miller and Education Department, Woburn Abbey, October 2002
Correspondence between Kathie Miller and National Trust for Scotland
Correspondence between Kathie Miller and Scottish National Heritage

Photo Credits:
Photo 5 Post card 1910, collection of the author

Photos 7& 8 R.A. & C.M. Williams
Gaerllwyd Flocks of Rare Breed Sheep, Little Gaerllwyd, Gaerllwyd, Chepstow, Monmouthshire NP 16 6AR, Wales.

All other photos taken by the author

Figure 10. Village Bay August 2003

Figure 11. The Island of Soay lies beyond Mol Carn na Liana and the Cambir of Hirta,
110 miles west of the mainland of Scotland, August 2000

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