After more than two years of being stranded at the foot of the cliffs in the Scottish Highlands, Britain’s loneliest sheep has now settled into her new home.
The ewe, now named Fiona, arrived recently at Dalscone Farm in good condition. She made headlines after a kayaker photographed her still trapped at the foot of a cliff at the Cromarty Firth. It was two years after a previous sighting.
She was dubbed “Britain’s loneliest sheep,” and an online petition to rescue her attracted thousands of signatures.
Farmer Ben Best of Dalscone Farm said it had been a “stressful” couple of days to get the sheep to Dumfries after professional shearer Cammy Wilson led the rescue operation and worked toward relieving the ewe from the weight from her unsheared wool.
The ewe eight about 92 kilograms without her wool, while the her fleece weighed nine kilograms. Although poor quality, Wilson hopes the wool can be fashioned into something and used in a charity raffle.
Wilson also came up with the name Fiona because he felt it was appropriate after the world connected with a sheep called Shrek living alone in a New Zealand cave. Fiona was a suitable Scottish name and the female counterpart based on the cartoon movie franchise.
Fiona will live out the rest of her life at Dalscone with capable people looking after her to make up for her years in solitude.