The Boreray, also known as the Boreray Blackface or Hebridean Blackface, is a breed of sheep originating on the St Kilda archipelago off the west coast of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and surviving as a

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

animal on one of the islands, Boreray. The breed was once reared for

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

and

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...

, but is now used mainly for

conservation grazing Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi- feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats.

. The Boreray is one of the

Northern European short-tailed sheep The Northern European short-tailed sheep are a group of traditional sheep breeds or types found in Northern Europe, mainly in the British Isles, Scandinavia, Greenland and the area around the Baltic. They are thought to be derived from the fir ...

group of breeds. It is one of the rarest breeds of sheep in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The breed is classed as "Category 3: Vulnerable" by the

Rare Breeds Survival Trust The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity whose purpose is to secure the continued existence and viability of the native farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1973 by Joe Henson to prese ...

, because 500–900 breeding ewes are known to exist. It had previously been the only breed classed in "Category 2: Critical" but by 2017 the population had grown.

St Kilda sheep

St Kilda is a remote archipelago, west of the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

. Several types of sheep have been associated with St Kilda. In addition to the Boreray, these include the

Soay sheep The Soay sheep is a breed of domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') descended from a population of feral sheep on the island of Soay in the St Kilda Archipelago, about from the Western Isles of Scotland. It is one of the Northern European short-tai ...

, a feral type from

Soay Soay (pronounced "soy") is the name of several Scottish islands. It is Sòdhaigh (sometimes anglicised "Soaigh") in Scottish Gaelic, and comes from the Old Norse ''so-ey'' meaning "island of sheep". It may refer to: * Soay, Inner Hebrides off sout ...

(one of the other islands in the St Kilda archipelago), and the

Hebridean sheep The Hebridean is a breed of small black sheep from Scotland, similar to other members of the Northern European short-tailed sheep group, having a short, triangular tail. They often have two pairs of horns. They were often formerly known as "St K ...

, which was formerly called the "St Kilda sheep", although the sheep it was derived from were probably not in fact from St Kilda itself.

History

Until the late eighteenth century, the domesticated sheep throughout the Scottish

Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1886 ...

belonged to a type called the

Scottish Dunface The Scottish Dunface, Old Scottish Short-wool, Scottish Whiteface or Scottish Tanface was a type of sheep from Scotland. It was one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep group, and it was probably similar to the sheep kept throughout the Bri ...

or Old Scottish Shortwool, which was probably similar to the sheep kept in the whole of northern and western Europe up to the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

. A local variety of Dunface was kept on the two main St Kilda islands of Boreray and Hirta by the crofters of the islands, who lived on Hirta, the largest island of the archipelago. Modern breeds descended from the Dunface include the Boreray and also the

North Ronaldsay North Ronaldsay (, also , sco, North Ronalshee) is the northernmost island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. With an area of , it is the fourteenth-largest.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 334 It is mentioned in the '' Orkneyinga saga''; in modern ...

and the

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. In the mid-eighteenth century the crofters' sheep were described as being "of the smallest kind", with short, coarse wool, and all having

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

s – usually one pair, but often two pairs. At that time there were about a thousand of these sheep on Hirta and about four hundred on Boreray. In the late nineteenth century the crofters' sheep were cross-bred with

Scottish Blackface The Blackface or Scottish Blackface is a British breed of sheep. It is the most common sheep breed of the United Kingdom. Despite the name, it did not originate in Scotland, but south of the border. History The origins of the breed are ...

sheep, which by then had replaced the Dunface throughout mainland Scotland. Before the evacuation of the St Kildian inhabitants, these sheep were farmed. However, when the St Kilda archipelago's human inhabitants were evacuated in 1930, the sheep of Hirta were also removed and in 1932 they were replaced by Soays, which still live there as well as on Soay itself. Meanwhile, the remaining sheep on Boreray were left to become

; these became the only survivors of the crofters' sheep, and one of the few surviving descendants of the Dunface. This means that they are the original, unmodified sheep that used to be farmed on the island. In the 1970s half a dozen of them were exported to form the basis of a breeding population on the mainland, but the majority of Borerays still remain on the island.

Characteristics

Despite being partially derived from a long-tailed breed (the Scottish Blackface), Borerays display characteristics which group them with other

northern European short-tailed sheep The Northern European short-tailed sheep are a group of traditional sheep breeds or types found in Northern Europe, mainly in the British Isles, Scandinavia, Greenland and the area around the Baltic. They are thought to be derived from the fir ...

. They are amongst the smallest sheep, with mature ewes weighing and standing at the withers. They have naturally short tails, which do not require docking. They also

moult In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...

their fleece naturally, rather than having to be

shorn Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...

annually, though older individuals do not moult as easily and may require additional shearing. Fleeces are grey or creamy white on the body, though darker individuals occur whose colouring is similar to the

. Rough in quality, the wool is mostly used in the creation of

tweeds Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained ...

carpet A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester hav ...

yarns. A tweed is a rough-surfaced coarse cloth, typically made in Scotland. Its colour is a mix of flecked colours. The face and legs are wool-free and black and white, with the proportions varying between individuals. Both sexes of the Boreray display

s, formerly sometimes more than one pair, but in the modern breed always only one pair. The horns on the ewes tend to be thinner than those on the males and while they curve they do not

spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point. Helices Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:shepherd's crooks. The horns on the rams have been described as "striking and majestic" by one farmer of the breed.

Population

In 1999 the population was estimated to be at less than 84, with 74 ewes. In 2002, there were between 92 and 100 animals, with 92 ewes and the male population estimated to be less than 7. In 2012, 204 ewes were registered in herdbooks. Since 2012, sheep numbers have been increasing year on year; and in 2017 the

(RBST) moved the classification of the sheep from 'Category 2: Critical' to 'Category 3: Vulnerable' as the number of breeding ewes was estimated to exceed 500. This data was collected from the herdbooks produced by breed societies, listing all registered sheep, and multiplying the number of registered sheep to account for non-registered sheep. However, in 2017 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimated that there are 426 breeding ewes.

Use in farming

The breed was primarily reared for meat and wool, but due to its rarity it is now reared for conservation purposes, if reared at all, as most of the population is thought to be feral. Due to the native conditions of where it developed, the Boreray is very well suited to

, which is grazing that uses livestock to improve biodiversity and achieve nature conservation in a given area. However, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust believe that this could be further capitalised on if the breed is developed further.

References

External links

Borerays
British Coloured Sheep Breeders Association *
The Sheep of St. KildaThe Rare Breeds Survival Trust
{{portalbar, Mammals, Animals, Biology, Scotland Animal breeds on the RBST Watchlist Fauna of St Kilda, Scotland Sheep breeds Sheep breeds originating in Scotland St Kilda, Scotland