Aka the best day of my life (sorry Michael) š
Anyone who knows me knows that my favourite animal in the world are highland cows. It goes Bentley, Highland Cows, Tigers. Iām really not sure where this love of highland cows came from, they are just beautiful and majestic and today I get to feed them and stroke them!!!
Michael will have to peel me away probably whilst Iām having a toddler tantrum!
It was a 20 minute, sketchy but not too sketchy, drive to Airyolland Farm – we were early (obviously) I was awake from 7:45 and had near enough jumped out of bed! The excitement was building as we had caught glimpses of a couple of coos on the way in, but knew more would be hiding!
From here on in, there will be more pictures than words because I am still, as I was on the experience, speechless.
Meeting the calves
The experience started by walking into the barn to meet 3 hand reared, 6 month old calves. They donāt typically hand rear the calves, only in absolutely necessary cases, as hand rearing them essentially causes them to become pets.
I already asked Michael and he said no.
We got to know more about the farm, the land and the family who run Kitchen Coos and Ewes before heading onto a trailer to go over the hill..
The university field
The first stop, was into the field of cows in āuniversityā they were a year to 18 months old. At which point we disembarked the trailer into a fenced paddock and then the cows could choose to come to the fence for a brush or stroke.
I then spent the best part of 40 minutes trying to stroke and love as many cows as I could, my face hurts from smiling at them so much! With poor Michael following me around to make sure he got enough photos so that I could enjoy the experience forever!
Speechless.
We then got to lay out some food for them and watch the chaos unfold!
Over the hill to the main herd
We hopped back onto the trailer and headed over another hill and into a different field, with over 600 acres of land they are never certain on where the cows will be hiding, but it didnāt take long for one pair of horns to show, and then there were the best part of 50 cows, including a bull!
The bull came straight up to trailer for a big scratch, we learnt more about the different types of highland cows, their Gaelic names, what they mean and their colours before driving round the field, pouring out food from the back of the trailer so that all 50 cows were following us – it was just magical.
We then headed into another field, this one had another bull (less experienced) and some calmer cows to help āencourage himā they were also surrounded by Beltex sheep. The cows again followed us all the way through the field, with one of the calves getting āZoomiesā!
Into our final field where we were introduced to the farms most famous cow, who has been on the cover in many magazines!
Tea, cake and the gift shop
We headed back down to the farm, mesmerised from the experience, to enjoy a selection of homemade cakes and a cup of tea. The tour we went on was the Hands on Coo Tour, but they offer a variety to choose from, all of which end with home made cakes and tea!
The experience wouldnāt be complete without a trip to the gift shop! Genuinely, the best experience of my life, such a fantastic place that care about their animals and want to show them off. I am already desperate to go back, but for now, the tour continues.
On to Catrine
As we drove to Catrine, Scotland continue to bask in the beautiful sunshine. The views are unexplainable, with it being such a clear day we could also spot the edges of the Isle of Arran as we drove the coastal A77.
We found our spot for the evening, did our usual set up and went for a walk along the river – 2km into Catrine and back again and gosh was it hot!!
We then settled down for the afternoon/evening and reflected on the amazing day weād had and how thankful we are to have gotten here. ā¤ļø