An adorable cow that has a lot of personality. The Highland Cow, a true scottish symbol. It was a pleasure to meet them during our trip to Scotland. We will tell you how it was the encounter with the Highland Coo.
I have to admit it: seeing a Scottish cow (or highland cow) was one of my main motivations for taking the trip to Scotland. And I suspected, though I was not sure, that I was going to meet a cow with an overwhelming personality.
How to see Scottish cows?
There are several ways, everything will depend on the time and resources available. If you have a rental car, you can do a highland cow road trip, here we leave you a list of the points where you can see the hairy cows. In our case, we didn’t have a car, so we took the option of seeing them as part of a tour. At this point, too, the options are varied. I searched for a tour that explicitly included a stop with the Highland Cows and came across one, which not only offered them as a tour stop, but the bus was a hairy cow ^^ (well, no hairs, but they tried) .
It was the Hairy coo tours, in which you make several close visits to Edinburgh during a day and at the end of the tour one gives the driver what he considers paying for the tour. Something like “free city tours”, where you pay what you can-want to give. I don’t remember how much we paid, but we did pay, because the tour was very good, later I will tell you how the whole day was. This time I want to tell you just about the adorable Scottish cows we saw 🙂
Characteristics of a highland cow
The highland cow (or highland coo), is characterized by:
- Having a long coat: thanks to this they can live in Scotland without problems and withstand the harsh winter temperatures. Its long coat is more visible on the face, which is almost always covered and gives them that adorable look.
- The color of their coat: the most characteristic is redhead, although it should be noted that there are also Scottish cows with black, blonde or brown fur.
- They have very long horns: both male and female, they have long horns, which can measure up to a meter. Nature is wise, and gave these horns to Scottish cows, so they can dig in the snow during the winter to find buried plants. And this is the reason why the horns are present in both males and females: they are not just for fighting.
- Longer life expectancy than other cattle breeds: up to 20 years old.
Encounter with the Scottish cows
Arriving at the place
As soon as the bus arrives at the meadow where the cows are, we see a cow that in the distance begins to walk with a firm but calm step. The other cows and sheep completely ignored us. Only one cow was still walking directly towards our group.
Later, I thought I understood why only one cow approached. In fact, highland cows have a hierarchical social structure.
They already know that when these groups approach, they will give them tasty food, so this cow was most likely the leader of the group.
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And this is the meeting with Fiona the cow
When the cow arrived, the guide began to tell us about the breed, about how nice they are, also about the fact that even if they are calm, you always have to be careful with their huge horns. While he was speaking, everyone was taking photos of her, as expected, and she was so amused.
When she was close enough, we could read what was written on the tag hanging from her ear, her name was Fiona of Gartchonsie. Wow, what a bombastic name 🙂 in fact she had a name that perfectly fits her personality. She was quite a diva.
At that moment, the guide took out a bag with snacks, which were the major reason why Fiona granted us her presence. She ate them, with joy and even licked her nose, so much so that we could see her pink tongue.
Feeding Fiona
Vicente found a piece of the snacks that Fiona was eating, and gave it to her. She drooled his hand XD. We took advantage, when we could, to take a cow selfie, to commemorate the memory of Fiona. At that time another cow felt brave enough to approach, it was a more intense reddish, but it did not last long and together with Fiona they left. While we continue admiring it at a distance.
In the distance, we could see the sheep with her baby who was trying to eat. They did stay away, all the time. In fact, Fiona’s calf, I suspect it was hers, always stayed far away. Even so we could see it, thanks to the mega zoom of the camera :). A Scottish cow baby, how adorable! 😀
Saying goodbye to the highland cow Fiona of Gartchonsie
And unfortunately it was time to say goodbye. We left with a huge smile on our faces, after the encounter with the famous Fiona of Gartchonsie, a highland cow with a lot of personality.
Scottish cows gallery
Before finishing this article, we offer you more photos of Fiona, the Scottish cow 🙂
Another area of the United Kingdom that may interest you is England, here we leave you the tips and the itinerary to take a trip through England
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