Welsh Mountain sheep

[1] The males have horns, and the females are polled (hornless); they have no wool on the face or legs, and they have long tails (normally left undocked).

Breeders give a high priority to hardiness, milking ability, mothering quality and lamb survival.

)[2] It was not always thus; the 18th-century English agriculturist Arthur Young described the Welsh Mountain sheep as "the most despicable of all types" and a judge at an agricultural show in the 1880s described it as "a diminutive ill-shapen animal with its shaggy coat more reminiscent of hair than of wool".

[3] There are stories of marauding sheep raiding dustbins in Blaenau Ffestiniog and of others rolling across cattle grids to access better pastures.

[2] In the Middle Ages these sheep were predominantly kept for their wool and milk, but by the nineteenth century they had become renowned in England for their tasty meat and Queen Victoria is reported to have demanded Welsh lamb at the royal table.

[5] The meat of the Welsh Mountain lamb is much esteemed, and carcasses have often won prizes at shows like the Royal Smithfield in London.