Exclusive:Ancient cattle herd practice brought back to life on highland estate
Herd managers will ride out on horseback to check the cattle where vehicles cannot access.
An ancient way of working with cattle, the land and the seasons is making a return to a remote, mountainous corner of Scotland’s west coast, where herd managers will ride on horseback to reach animals across the rugged landscape.
The team at Ardtornish estate, on the Morvern peninsula, is reviving the practice of transhumance – the seasonal movement of people and livestock across the land. In centuries past, families tending their herds when moving them between pastures would stay close to the animals in simple dwellings known as shielings, built from locally available materials including dry stone, turf, wood and thatch made from heather, reeds or bracken.
The practice lies at the heart of Highland culture, and is said to date back to the Iron Age and possibly earlier. During the warmer months, families would move to higher ground to graze their livestock and produce dairy products such as cheese. The footings and ruins of shielings can still be found scattered across Morvern and the neighbouring Ardnamurchan peninsula.
Farming partners Alec Heywood and Lizzie MacKenzie will work with the endangered Irish breed Droimeann, traditionally used in transhumance, alongside native Highland cattle on the estate.
The revival is part of Ardtornish’s wider plan to restore certain habitats across the landscape while continuing to farm and produce food. Like other Scottish estates, its owners have reduced grazing pressure from sheep and deer while focusing on nature projects. The Raven family, which owns Ardtornish, has been developing an organic farming and tourism business alongside efforts to regenerate native woodland.
The Droimeann cattle, prized for their intelligence and adaptability, are the latest addition to the estate, with 12 arriving earlier this autumn. Their distinctive variety of coat patterns is celebrated in old Scots Gaelic milking songs – markings no longer seen in Highland cattle.
The breed’s hardiness and ability to forage across rough ground, scrub and woodland make them well suited to the peninsula’s hills, the estate team said. Their movements will be managed to target areas where grazing can help control vegetation and support certain habitat recovery. Drawing on research into regenerative agriculture, the project will see cattle graze rough Molinia grassland in the mountains during the summer. In autumn and early winter, they will move to the old shieling sites, where the soil has been enriched by seaweed historically brought inland. In late winter, the herd will descend to the ancient woodland, also referred to as temperate rainforest, along the coast, trampling bracken beds to help trees and other plants regenerate.
Herd managers will ride out on horseback to check the cattle in areas inaccessible to vehicles. Ms MacKenzie said the horses would also carry supplies, including mineral blocks that the cattle lick to obtain essential nutrients.
The herd will be fitted with virtual-fencing collars, which allow the estate to set grazing boundaries on a digital map without installing permanent fences across the landscape. When an animal approaches a boundary, the collar sounds a warning. If it continues beyond the boundary, it can receive a low-level electric pulse.
Farmers using the method say cattle generally learn to stop before reaching the limit.
The technology, now used by farmers across the UK, will allow the herd to move between grazing areas while being kept away from places where livestock could hinder woodland recovery or damage sensitive habitats in which endangered species are struggling to survive.
Mr Heywood said: “The key to our farming is seeing our animals as part of the ecosystem.
“These cattle can convert rough grazing into food while helping natural processes thrive. Timing is everything. Grazing the old shieling sites in autumn helps prepare spring breeding grounds for golden plover and greenshank, and places where black grouse gather to display.
“We’re bringing back a way of farming that follows the seasons, with the cattle doing different jobs for nature as they move through the landscape.”
Ms MacKenzie said: “It’s an ancient way of farming with some very modern tools. There’s real joy in working this closely with animals and land, following the seasons and helping nature recover.”
For Ms MacKenzie, the project also has a personal connection. Her ancestors were forced to leave Morvern during the Highland clearances, when communities across parts of Scotland were removed from their land, often to make way for sheep farming.
“The shieling tradition was about people, cattle and the hills being connected through the seasons,” said Henry Dobson, Ardtornish’s estate manager.
“We cannot simply recreate life as it was generations ago, but we can bring cattle back into parts of the landscape where they have a useful role. The collars give us the means to manage where they graze, and to change that as we learn what each area needs.”
Hugh Raven, managing director of Ardtornish, said: “For too long, farming and nature recovery have been treated as separate activities. This project brings them together, and it reconnects people with a tradition that once shaped life in the Highlands.
“We want Ardtornish to be a place where a working farm, a recovering landscape and a thriving community can support one another.”
Droimeann cattle were once widespread in Ireland but were recognised as a rare native breed in 2020. The Ardtornish herd, which will feature on BBC Scotland’s Landward programme tonight, comes from the cattle of Tom Keane, who has worked with other breeders and the Droimeann Cattle Society to rebuild the breed, and fellow farmer Anthony MacNamara.
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