[MR] BBC: Chillingham Cattle, Medieval Breed Survival

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today I stumbled across an article from BBC Travel on the Chillingham
Cattle, an extremely rare English breed. Well, not really a breed in
the modern sense. These cattle have been living in a former hunting park at
. . . surprise! . . . Chillingham Castle in Northumberland for the last 800
or so years. In olden tymes the cattle were hunted for sport, and left
completely wild to preserve their natural survival instincts. This isolated
herd, now numbering around 130 animals, is genetically pure to the middle
ages. In fact, they are so inbred that they all look exactly alike. And
mean! They are really nasty beasties that humans need to avoid completely.

The BBC story is found here:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210915-a-british-beast-rarer-than-the-panda
.

Wikipedia also has an article at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillingham_cattle .

There is another breed of "wild" cattle raised in England, but with a
completely different origin: Heck cattle also sometimes known as "Nazi
cattle". These originated in the 1920s as a project by the German Heck
brothers to selectively breed cattle that resembled extinct European
aurochs. The result was an animal that looked like an auroch, but with
completely different blood lines. These ersatz aurochs became a popular
project with the Nazis, who planned to introduce them into an imagined
"rewilded" Europe. There are several herds left in continental Europe, and
some are also raised in England. They were recently featured in the British
TV program MYSTIC BRITAIN. In the episode "Secrets of Stonehenge" co-host
and anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota investigated Heck cattle to learn more
about aurochs, and pronounced their steaks as excellent eating. Heck cattle
are just as mean as the natural Chillingham animals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heck_cattle .

And back to Chillingham Castle. Dating from a 12th century monastery, this
castle has seen a great deal of fascinating history. Chillingham is also
claimed to be the most haunted castle in England:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillingham_Castle and
https://chillingham-castle.com .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Celebrating 14 years of Merry Rose Commentary
*on Outre', *and Sometimes Bloody, Medieval History