Scottish Blackface

Description:

The Scottish Blackface is the most common breed of domestic sheep in the United Kingdom. This tough and adaptable breed is often found in the more exposed locations, such as the Scottish Highlands or roaming on the moors of Dartmoor. It is also known as Blackfaced Highland, Kerry, Linton, Scottish Mountain, Scottish Highland, Scotch Blackface and Scotch Horn. Blackfaces are horned in both sexes, and as their name suggests, they usually have a black face (but sometimes with white markings), and black legs. This breed is primarily raised for meat.

Notes:

Scottish Blackface wool is a specialty wool in a class of its own. There are variations in type of fleece according to the way the sheep were bred. In general, there are a southwest type (short wool) and a central Scotland type (long wool). The southwest type is the finer, with a Bradford count of forty or so, generally classed as short or medium: ewe's fleece of 3 to 4½ lb, greasy. The central type is a stronger wool classed as long or deep strong; this type gives a ewe fleece of 5 to 6½ lb, greasy. The main markets are the mattress and upholstery trade, carpet and heavy cloth trade. Strong Blackface wool undoubtedly makes the best mattress filling there is: the demand for this is very good. The carpet trade all over the world (even New Zealand and Australia) uses large quantities of the medium class of Scottish Blackface wool. The finer wools are used for blending into many of the strong wearing clothes, over-coating,working tweeds and heavy blankets, The finest Scottish Blackface wool goes to the famous Harris tweed trade.