Small, hairy and hardy: not only features of some Scottish men, but a way of describing three classic traits of Highland cattle. Now often ginger or blonde, in the past the average Highland cow or bull was dark coated.

Trade in these ‘black cattle’, as they were once known, was a mainstay of the economy of the Highlands in the 1700s and early 1800s. Journeys to markets were long, and cattle often had shoes, like horses, to make the journey. The largest cattle sales of all were at Crieff and Falkirk, just beyond the southern Highlands. Most important in the north, from about 1817 onwards, was the cattle market or ‘tryst’ at Muir of Ord, close to the Moray Firth.

The men who walked and rode, ate and slept with the herds over many weeks were called ‘drovers’. The routes they followed with the cattle to reach the markets are still known as ‘drove roads’. Drove roads from several directions converged on Muir of Ord. These included one that came over from the Kyle of Sutherland and the high moors at Aultnamain, where an old inn, once much used by drovers, still stands. Cattle from Caithness and Sutherland often came by this route.

At the tryst, the dealers who bought the cattle might arrange a further drove to bring them south. Other cattle would go to farmers around the Moray Firth.

Once expansion of the railway made it easy to move cattle south, trysts at Muir of Ord and other northern markets dwindled in importance. The place where thousands of cattle were once traded is now a golf course. But every summer, the sounds of prize cattle at the Black Isle Show – Scotland’s second-largest agricultural event - just across the road, give an echo of the excitement of the old tryst.
Text by Kenny Taylor