---
title: "Highland cattle grow the longest outer hair of any cattle breed, built for Scotland’s rain and gales"
url: https://badiyaa.com/highland-cattle-shaggy-coat-scotland/
published: 2026-11-11T20:30:00+00:00
modified: 2026-11-11T20:30:00+00:00
section: Pets & Animals
publisher: Badiyaa
---

# Highland cattle grow the longest outer hair of any cattle breed, built for Scotland’s rain and gales

Highland cattle, the shaggy horned breed from Scotland, carry the longest outer hair of any cattle and are nearly as cold-hardy as reindeer.

A Highland cow’s shaggy fringe is not just for show. The breed wears a double coat whose oily outer hair is the longest of any cattle breed, laid over a soft, downy undercoat, and that combination lets it shrug off the driving rain and gales of the Scottish Highlands.

If you have seen a ginger cow with a curtain of hair over its eyes and horns spreading like handlebars in a roadside photo, it was almost certainly a Highland. Both cows and bulls grow horns, and the animals can live up to 20 years, longer than most cattle.

## Built for bad weather

European cattle generally tolerate the cold, but Highlands have been described as nearly as cold-hardy as caribou and reindeer. They have been raised successfully in Norway and Canada, where winters are far harsher than in Scotland. The flip side is heat: their heavy coats make them much less comfortable in hot climates than humped zebu cattle from South Asia.

The hair even changes the meat. Because Highlands keep warm with fur rather than a thick layer of fat under the skin, their beef tends to be leaner than most. Farmers prize them for turning poor hill pasture, land that would otherwise grow little of value, into a profit.

## Why the camera loves them

- Color: about 60% are reddish brown and some 22% yellow; the rest are pale silver, black or brindle and dun, shades set by variants of the MC1R and PMEL genes.

- Horns: long and wide on both sexes.

- Size: cows usually stand 90 to 106 cm (35 to 42 inches) at the shoulder, and mature bulls can reach about 800 kg (1,800 lb).

- The fringe: the long forelock that falls over the face is part of that record-length outer coat.

## Swimming cattle and Scottish drovers

The breed began as two types in western Scotland. The small, often black Kyloe was raised in the Hebrides, and its name comes from the habit of swimming the animals across the kyles, the narrow sea straits between the islands and the mainland. Mainland cattle were larger and came in browns and reds.

In the 18th century these cattle were a pillar of Scotland’s economy. English drovers bought them at markets in Falkirk and Crieff and walked them south over the Pennines for fattening; in 1723 alone, more than 30,000 Scottish cattle were sold into England. A breed society formed in 1884, and its first herd-book in 1885 registered both types simply as Highland.

A group of Highland cattle is called a fold, not a herd, after the open stone shelters, or folds, where they spent winter nights. Queen Elizabeth II started a fold at Balmoral Castle in 1954, and Highlands are still kept there.

## A global breed that is rare at home

The cattle have been exported since the late 19th century to places including Argentina, Australia, Canada, the Falkland Islands and the United States. Twenty-three countries reported the breed to the UN’s livestock database in 2022, with a worldwide total of just over 40,000 and the largest numbers in France and Finland. Finland’s breed club counted 13,000 there in 2016.

In Britain, registered breeding cows numbered about 2,500 in 2002, rose to some 6,000 by 2012 and stood at 3,161 in 2021, and the breed is listed there as endangered or at risk. For comparison with other big grazers we have covered, Oklahoma’s prairie herd that [began with 300 donated bison in 1993 now tops 2,000 animals](https://badiyaa.com/tallgrass-prairie-preserve-bison-herd-oklahoma/), and an elk once [kept a British Columbia resident stuck indoors for hours](https://badiyaa.com/elk-outside-british-columbia-home-hours/).

In Sweden, Borlänge Municipality keeps 105 Highlands to graze restored lakeshore meadows at Vassjön, a project that started in 1994 with just five cows.

## Further reading

- [Wikipedia: Highland cattle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_cattle)

*Image: Raphael Hofmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons*

*This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*