Sheep
- there are a number of famous breeds in Scotland. The hardy Scottish Blackface and the Cheviot patrol the hills in great numbers. Among the oldest and rarest sheep are the North Ronaldsay sheep in Orkney, which have a diet of seaweed for most of the year. They come in grey, black and a reddish-brown colour which the Orcadians call moorit. They have been shown to be related to the sheep remains found at Skara Brae, an archaeological site dating from 3000 BCE. The rare Soay sheep, another of the most primitive types of domestic sheep, are found wild in St Kilda, the archipelago from which the last human residents were evacuated in 1932. Even when the islands were inhabited, the St Kildans had their own flocks which were separate from the wild sheep. Soay sheep take their name from the island of Soay in the St Kilda archipelago. The name Soay actually means 'Sheep Island' in Old Norse, which suggests the breed dates at least from Viking times.