Agricultural History Review, Volume 73 Part 2 (2025), pp. 257–277

Following the recent discovery that the ancestors of ‘Hebridean’ sheep actually came from St Kilda, this is an updated summary of their history. It includes new information about the first exports of St Kildas, and explains that the Windermere St Kildas, ancestors of all four surviving nineteenth-century flocks in England, were also directly exported from the archipelago. The name change to ‘Hebridean’ (c.1905) was instigated by the MacLeod family, who insisted that St Kilda’s only truly primeval sheep were the Soays (which they owned). However, most owners continued to call their sheep ‘St Kildas’ until the late twentieth century. The St Kilda archipelago thus witnessed the successive introduction of three races of pre-modern sheep – Soays, then Borerays, then St Kildas. Recognition of this sequence may assist future genetic research and improve our understanding of the history of Northern short-tails; however, the very different histories of the three races will need to be taken into account.