Castlemilk Moorit Sheep

The Castlemilk Moorit sheep hasn't been around for all that long, only since the early 1900's after Sir John Buchanan Jardine, a Scottish aristocrat who's family home was at Castlemilk in Dumfrieshire, who had a passion for breeding animals such as hounds, horses, cattle and sheep and who fascinated particularly in breeding animals in shades of brown.  He used Shetland Sheep in the Moorit colour, along with Manx Loaghtans and a mouflon ram (a wild sheep that is darker on its upper parts and lighter on the lower parts, including the neck and belly) to produce an easy-care brown sheep with short, tight wool that was suitable for hand-spinning by the family.  

The family continued to raise the breed until 1970 when Sir John Buchanan Jardine died and most of his flock were culled aside from a small number that was sold to the late Joe Henson.  Joe Henson was the owner of Cotswold Farm Park, which was established in the 1960's to protect rare breeds of livestock and all present day Castlemilk Moorit Sheep are descendants of those handful of sheep.  He was also the founder-chairman of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and received an MBE in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honors for services to conservation. His son, Adam Henson, is a well known farmer and TV presenter and appears on BBC Countryfile.

They are fine boned, vigorous and self-reliant with long legs and a short tail.  Both sexes have horns, the ewes have two uniform wide-spreading horns whilst the rams have horns that spiral. They are varying shades of brown, from mid-brown to dark brown with similar face colour.  They should have white around the eyes, lower jaw, belly, knees and inside the lower leg and the tail.  They adapt well to most conditions and environments.  The Castlemilk Moorit sheep, at the time of writing, is in Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 5: At Risk (900-1500 registered breeding ewes). 

They produce a fleece that weighs 1-2kg and the staple length is between 1.5 and 4.75 inches long 3.8-12cm).  The fleece is kemp free and the locks tend to be short and blocky and often have sun-bleached tips.  This is probably best carded due to the shortness of the staple and how fine the wool is.  The wool is very similar to that of the Manx Loaghtan, which it is genetically descended from. 

I have bought this breed in as a 106g bag of pre-prepared roving that was ready to spin as, for me, this was the easier option due to the shortness of the staple.

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand, similar to Shetland and Manx Loaghtan.  My knitted piece for the project took 27g/69m so I have some left to do whatever with.