Shetland

Sheep have been on the Shetland Islands for well over a thousand years, and the combination of a hard climate and total isolation produced something distinct. The breed probably descends from ancient Scandinavian sheep and belongs to the northern short-tailed family. It is one of the smallest British breeds.

Very few ever left the islands. Large populations on the British mainland and elsewhere are a recent development.

North America has a couple of centuries of documented imports, including a small flock Thomas Jefferson kept at Monticello. None of those historic flocks survived as purebreds. Every Shetland here today traces instead to a single 1980 importation of 32 sheep by the late G.D. Dailley of Ontario.

They are small and fine boned, rams at 90 to 125 pounds and ewes at 75 to 100, and they grow slowly.