Welcome to HOLIDAY West Highland - Discover the West Highlands

The ‘hairy Heilan coo’ (The hairy highland cow)

Author Holiday West Highland |

NO HOLIDAY picture album of Scotland is complete with- out a photograph of a hairy Highland cow. They are as much a recognised tourist symbol of our country as tartan, heather, kilts and bagpipes. Yet very little is generally known about these formidable looking beasts. Their true origins lie shrouded in the mists of time, a throwback to an age when a thick woolly coat, fierce appearance and strong herding instinct were required for survival.

Today, the faded yellow, rustic red or sometimes jet black coated Highland cattle are experiencing something of a revival, finding great popularity not only with a new generation of wealthy hobby farmers who purchase them for their looks and social status but Highlanders also fulfilling a role in land conservation thanks to their ability to thrive on low quality vegetation that more selective herbivores turn their noses up at. Highland cattle may be direct descendants of the herds of wild oxen or aurochs that roamed northern regions of Britain.

Certainly their breed characteristics are closer to wild animals such as deer than the modern cattle breeds commonly seen on today’s modern livestock units. Or can they trace their traits and bloodlines from a domesticated strain of cattle brought to our shores by Neolithic man? Recently genetic research would suggest that the most traditional of Scottish cattle are closer to livestock found in Syria or Turkey, regions which have been attributed with the first domestication of wild cattle.

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Wildlife - in Focus

Author Holiday West Highland |

THE West Highlands of Scotland is home to a multitude of spectacular wildlife from the majestic splendour of the golden eagle to the smaller, but equally interesting, red squirrel.

Wildlife abounds, offering the holidaymaker with a eye for nature, hours of relaxing, free entertainment. And, of course, the opportunity to perhaps spot something just that little bit different. There has to be some irony in that, what we oft en refer to as wilderness, wasteland or remoteness are the very environments that we seek when getting away from the rat-race of life.

Spring is the best time to see the many species of wild flowers which bloom in the glens and leafy avenues while among the feathered residents you may find song thrushes, tits, dippers, buzzards, herons and, with luck, one of the rising number of Peregrine falcons.

The opportunities to see natures mammals are too many to list - but watch out for the noble Red Deer in the high hills and glens, or their smaller ‘Bambi’ cousins, the Roe Deer, in lowland sheltered woodland.

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