Shoppers get chance to sample rare Soay sheepmeat

Soay breed roam Angus coastline and their seaweed diet gives an added flavour

Shoppers at today’s farmers’ market in Arbroath will be offered a rare opportunity to buy some unusual Scottish sheepmeat.

The semi-feral Soay sheep that roam the cliffs along the Angus coastline near Auchmithie are often mistaken for goats and the animals are so difficult to capture that their owner, Duncan Gray of Eassie Mains Farm near Lunan Bay, has had to resort to shooting them from a boat and process them for his personal consumption.

However, Jillian Mcewan, the owner of online grocer Fresh Food Express, near Arbroath, persuaded Mr Gray to gather in his flock of 50 sheep and have the youngstock slaughtered at the specialist Downfield abattoir at Cupar then processed into regular cuts of sheepmeat.

She explained that the sheep eat seaweed as part of their diet and the flavour enhances the meat.

“Soays are a primitive rare breed and not many people get the opportunity to eat them anymore,” she said. “They’re practically wild and for nearly 12 months of the year they are left to their own devices, although they have to be rounded up for health checks.

“We thought that by marketing the meat it would help promote and save the breed.”

A trial sample at a previous farmers’ market proved to be a huge success and Ms Mcewan now sells the meat through her website.

A box of lamb costs £220 for about 12kg but at the market individual cuts will be on sale. They include racks of lamb, shoulders and double loin chops.

Orders have been sent from as far south as Cornwall and to Scotland’s outer isles.

The semi-feral Soay sheep are owned by Duncan Gray of Eassie Mains Farm, near Lunan Bay.