In 2012 we set up a small flock of rare-breed Boreray sheep on our newly-established smallholding in Oxfordshire. Since then we have discovered they are fascinating animals with an intriguing history…
Our Boreray Adventure
We first met Borerays at the Royal Berkshire Show at Newbury in 2012 when we went along to find out about Jacob sheep, with the intention of breeding them on our new smallholding in Oxfordshire. The first sheep we saw in the first marquee we entered were Borerays from the Glaisdale flock. Talking to the breeder we did not take long to decide that we would have a go at breeding Borerays instead, to help increase the numbers and preserve the breed.
Boreray Sheep
Boreray sheep are unique, being the only remaining descendants of the Scottish Dunface sheep which became extinct around 1880. Earlier than this, in the mid-nineteenth century Hebridean Blackface rams were apparently introduced to the Scottish Dunface flock on the island of Boreray, and this resulted in the Boreray breed. How and why they originally came to be on this particular inhospitable, almost inaccessible island is a mystery.