The king of the moor
Walter
Walter has settled well and, by all accounts, has taken charge. He is the majestic king of the moor, with a magnificent set of curling horns and a very calm way of looking at you.
The flock
Meet the residents
Native and rare breeds on Dartmoor, each with a name and a character. Here are a few of them.
Ewe
Ailsa
The beautiful Ailsa, with dark horns, a pale crown of wool and a face the colour of the moor in autumn. She is one of the flock’s great characters.
This year’s lamb
Dotty
Dotty is this year’s bottle-fed lamb, and she is growing into a fine sheep. She spent her early days indoors, visiting schools and generally entertaining everyone she met.
She is a little more sheeplike now, but she still loves her cuddles, and her food.
Curly-fleeced and unbothered
Damelza
Damelza has a fleece the colour of a Dartmoor evening, and a talent for being useful. Here she is giving a magpie somewhere to perch.
Goats
Pearl and her boys
Pearl’s boys are already as big as she is, and she has fed them well. The goats like to take the high ground, and a granite boulder is as good a viewpoint as any.
Our newest friend
The moorland sheep
Every time the gate opens and someone heads to the car for animal feed, this moorland sheep comes bounding down the hill at an incredible speed. One evening she waited patiently to see what was going in the feed bucket.
Breeds
Native & rare breeds
Longwools
Curly-fleeced longwool sheep, with the long, lustrous locks you can see on the ewes in the photos.
Closewools
Closewool sheep, with a dense, close fleece suited to the Dartmoor weather.
Hebrideans
The Hebrideans have settled well to their new life on Dartmoor, and have become part of the landscape.
More faces
The wider flock
