The Wild Cattle of Chillingham

Venture to north Northumberland near the Cheviot Hills and the Scottish border, and you may find yourself near Chillingham. If you do, be sure to visit its wild cattle. Yes, for maybe 700 years, a herd of cattle has lived and prospered here, always untouched by man – no farmers, no vets, no medical treatment, no cowsheds, no milking.

Though their territory is large, there is inevitably a fence round their domain. But there are no other cattle like them anywhere (except cousins in Scotland who are kept there just in case anything happens to this lot). so genetically, they are in-bred. Normally, this leads to all kinds of problems. Remarkably, not with these creatures.

I seem to have snapped females and youngsters – play fighting as young animals do. The males have bigger thicker horns and have greyer hind quarters.

These feisty cattle – the females anyway -can bear a single calf at absolutely any time of year: snow, hot summer – they don’t care. Males will fight – sometimes bitterly – for the privilege of breeding with females. They’re herd animals, and their society is matriarchal, so an older female will call the shots in deciding where they’ll move off to next for safe and worthwhile grazing. Here’s a matriarch summoning her companions with her slightly underwhelming ‘moo’.

It was Charles Darwin who encouraged records to be kept on the breeding behaviour and numbers of the Chillingham cattle. They’re still being studied today. And visited too, by interested onlookers like us, who definitely keep a very respectful distance.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

44 thoughts on “The Wild Cattle of Chillingham”

  3. you ALWAYS deliver….. never heard that story but very impressive it is. Thanks a lot for this new token of info. They look a bit ‚dishevelled‘ if I may say so. But so would we if we weren‘t ‚trimmed and beautified‘ occasionally, non?

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  6. Dear Margaret
    We didn’t know that wild cattle exist in England and that even Darwin was interested in them.
    Thanks for telling us and showing us your pictures
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  7. That first photo, with the mountains, is an absolute painting. In fact this weekend I attended (virtually) a watercolor tutorial and I ended up with a painting that has purple mountains in the background. Looks kinda like your photo!

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    1. Apparently they aren’t really used to humans in the sense we tend to mean it. They’re wary and potentially dangerous. Yes, carcasses are, I think, removed . I gather it’s quite difficult, and only done because there aren’t enough prey animals to dispose of the bodies in the natural way

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  11. They’re a fascinating oddity, aren’t they? Wild cattle in England! But if wild cattle are to live anywhere then Northumberland is most appropriate as it’s our wildest county 🙂 Did you visit the castle too? And did you know it claims to be the most haunted castle in the country?

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      1. I’ll look forward to that! It’s many years since we were there (I think on an early excursion with my in-laws who were keen to introduce me to Northumberland) so I’m curious to hear why the day needed saving 😀

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