“I don’t want them to be rare, I want them to be treasured.”

Originally bred as the ideal parkland sheep, Castlemilk Moorit sheep are the Super Models of the UK’s native sheep - with their elegant heads, and the appearance of deer from a distance, yet practical with a soft fleece, good for knitting and known to produce high quality meat.

Classified as ‘At Risk’ on the Rare Breed Survival Trust watch list, the breed needs to be treasured and nurtured to ensure its survival for generations to come.

The curiosity of a Castlemilk

The Castlemilk Moorit is one of the larger of the sheep breeds in the Northern short-tailed primitive group. There is no height or weight limit for the breed but mature ewes typically weigh in the region of 40kgs, and mature rams in the region of 55kgs.

Ewes are always horned and exhibit two uniform and wide spreading horns, the degree of curl of the horns may vary from little to a full semi-circle. The rams have much heavier horns, these should be uniform and may have a single curl facing forward or a second curl flaring out away from the face. The horns must not touch the cheeks.

Both sexes are uniformly moorit (brown) in colour although the actual shade can vary from dark chocolate to mid-brown. The fleece bleaches in the sun often giving an overall colour impression of light brown when fully fleeced. The face colour can vary from dark chocolate to mid-brown but both sexes should have definite mouflon pattern markings to include some white around the eyes, on the lower jaw, belly, knees and inside the lower leg and tail together with a rump patch.