Chillingham Wild Cattle

Lots of places we explore on The Fabulous North are architectural, pieces of art or sculpture, or tiny little chapels at the end of a country lane, or a hillfort high up in the clouds. This is a bit of a different fabulous thing...breathing and bellowing and rarer than a Panda!

Arriving at the Cattle Pavilion, you'd be forgiven for thinking we were at a ranch in the Wild West! We clambered into a Land rover, bobbing up and down on off road tracks to the middle of nowhere.

Once we arrived at our destination in the middle of the woods we were rewarded with views not only of the rolling Cheviots to the West, and Ros Castle to the South East, but to an imposing herd of wild white Chillingham Cattle, untamed and left to their own devices within the walls of the Chillingham Castle Estate.

We were the anomaly here. People don't pass these parts easily. There is no access on foot, and you must be escorted here with a ranger. Keep out signs with bulls butting humans are a clear sign to steer clear. If embroiled in a collision, serious umbilical shock could occur, according to the signage. These bulky bovines aren't the everyday!

Living here at Chillingham, and rarer than Pandas, the cattle have roamed these lands for the last 700 to 800 years. They are untouched by humans and left to their own devices, never intermingling with domestic cows. This means they are entirely interbred.

According to science, they should all have five legs and two tongues, but for some unknown reason, this herd remain fit and healthy and free from disease or genetic complications. Studies have shown that the herd have a high degree of genetic uniformity, which must act as a help and not a hindrance, as the herd has existed for many hundreds of years with no intervention.

We were shown the scrapes that the bulls dig to impress their competitors. No one really knows why they do it, other than to create a bit of a kerfuffle and dust! Something to do with male prowess.

We thought we'd largely be looking from afar, but we had great close up encounters when the ranger took us down to the herd, which approached us rather than us walking to them. The ranger felt that this was a safer option as they were choosing to bypass us for fresher grass and walked side on to us to avoid confrontation, but in doing so, they came quite close.

The Chillingham Cattle are their own thing! They have an excellent sense of smell which reaches up to five miles! They have marvellous hearing, hence the need for us to talk quietly and make no sudden moves.

Unlike domesticated cows, the Chillingham herd breeds throughout the year, so they are just as likely to have a calf at Christmas in the wilds of winter as in the spring sunshine. We were lucky enough to see a handful of tiny ones that looked like they'd been washed in Daz. They were easy to spot because of their pristine white coats.

One bold little guy peeped his round an old oak tree as we were watching the main herd and took a drink from the stream. He kept his eyes on us at all times and knew exactly his proximity to us.

All the while, there was a constant chorus of Chillingham yodels! The cows make their own unique call, which is loud and long. The only competition was the woodpecker drumming in the woods and the occasional swallow and skylark.

The ranger pointed out the naturally fallen timber which is all left to rot to enhance the ecosystem, but also is used as a constant scratching post for the cattle. You can see here that the bark was long gone on this old tree.

The cattle have had some highs and lows. The treacherous winter of 1947 saw the herd drop to 13. A worry indeed for the future of this unique breeding herd. Plans were made to create a reserve herd to protect the species and a separate herd live in reserve at The Crown Estate in Fochabers in North East Scotland.

During the foot and mouth disease outbreak, when all domesticated cattle were culled, the Chillingham herd were spared and kept safe and isolated due to very stringent biosecurity measures. They don't wear tags in their ears like other cattle. Another sign of their true wild status.

Small but stocky, the cows carry no additional weight. The female's udders are barely visible because they've never been domesticated and improved for their milk or meat. The males have horns that curve up and look like they'd be at home on top of a Viking helmet. The females are lyre-shaped and curve back with age. The faces are mottled, but largely the most notable thing is their bright white coats.

Boys can stand out because of their dirty bums! It's de rigueur for the males to spatter their backsides with poo to show who's the daddy! I'm glad this is kept to cows!

Their ears are red whereas most parkland cattle have black ears.

The land is rich and fertile as a result of no intensive farming and the herd share their acres with fallow and roe deer as well as the usual hare, fox and badger, signs of which setts and dens were evident.

We were lucky in the fact that we found two specific herds of cattle, but there can be a number of subherds that don't necessarily mingle. They can be spread out and at times harder to locate. Numbers are high currently, with a population of around 136. As winters are warmer and springs hotter, the cattle live longer and don't struggle as much in lean times of no food.

The Chillingham Wild Cattle have had their fair share of renowned admirers too. Charles Darwin was fascinated by them, and in the 1860s he worked with the sixth Earl of Tankerville to record observations about this unique herd. This is the oldest herd book in the country and is still maintained. Darwin was intrigued by their evolution and natural selection.

Thomas Bewick was good friends with John Bailey, the park steward, who in 1788 gave him access after Bewick had walked on foot from Newcastle to Chillingham, especially to sketch the Chillingham Bull. It was a masterpiece with which Bewick was rightly proud and the recipient, Marmaduke Tunstall said

"the figure is well engraved, and has much expression."

It was aid to be Bewick's finest piece, engraved onto box wood and printed many times, seen here courtesy of The Bewick Society.

In 1867 Sir Edwin Lanseer painted a dreamy scene of soft white floaty cattle which were anatomically quite incorrect. My mam had a set of table mats with them on when I was a child, and they were always mottled with gravy! Landseer's paintings can be seen in The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, though my mam's table mats are long gone!

We had a fantastic morning visiting the Chillingham Wild Cattle and tours can be booked every day of the week in season.

It was amazing to get up close and personal with such a rare creature and to know they are part and parcel of the fabric that makes Northumberland unique, and it was a true privilege to spend time watching them.