UK Trip Part 7 Scotland and Northern England

Our trip back on the ferry from Shetland to Aberdeen was as lovely as the trip over was not!  We left just after dark and watched the blinking lights of the Islands disappear as we headed back to Scotland.  Little did I know that I had the start of some serious respiratory illness lurking in my body. After a lovely dinner on board, a nice sleep during our uneventful crossing, we arrived back in Aberdeen and heading for Kate Sharp's holding where we did a thorough inspection of Kate and Alan's sheep.  There are some truly lovely sheep at Kate's and I would love to get my hands on them, especially those grays!!!

Kate and some of her ewes.

Love this rich, dark color

Another shot of a different color grey ewe

After tea and biscuits at Kate's, we loaded our luggage into Amy's tiny car and set off to Philip Cowen's, Wadley Farm, Durham County.
Philip has a nice selection of sheep of different breeds that he crosses with Shetlands as well as a number of fine examples of Shetland sheep that represent the Flockbook type and what some of us refer to in America as the UK type.

Can you spot Amy's little Foula ewe (spotty) in this group of ewes?

Lovely length and crimp

And another fleece style that's represented in the Wadley flock

I think this is either an Island ewe or a decendent

I really like this moorit ewe

Here's a group shot of the different breeds of rams that Philp and his father use in their flocks.  Icelandic, Charollais, Suffolk, etc. 

Such a majestic ram, nicely proportioned, great head and structure

Great looking grey kat ram, again with nice proportions and overall nice structure

Lovely moorit ram with a slightly different horn style, and really great fleece and overall breed type.

I added these of the rams horns to show examples of good breed typical horns

Nice width at the top and good clearance on the sides......not growing out of the side of their skull but rather on the top and rising up a bit before turning outward. 

And this is the fleece!!!!!  Just because it's so lovely.

Grey kats' fleece..............nice eh?