Just Passing Through: Cattle Droving in the Rhins of Galloway

Most of us who have driven around the Rhins of Galloway are familiar with cattle droving. Many times I have rounded a bend in the road to be met by a leisurely herd of cows on their way to be milked, accompanied by a busy farmer and his dog. For as long as cattle have been domesticated, they have been driven on foot from place to place: from field to field, from winter pasture to summer grazing and from farm to market. Most of these journeys are brief, a few hundred yards at most. But for close to three hundred years, from the early 17^th century to the late 19^th century, cattle were driven hundreds of miles, from the extremities of Scotland, Wales and Ireland to the south of England, to meet ever growing demands for beef. The Dumfries and Galloway region played a major part in this trade, both as a producer of beef cattle and as the main route for cattle droving from Ireland. In this article I will consider the long-distance cattle droving trade and its place in the history of Galloway in general and the Rhins in particular.

Walking Beef to England: the Cattle Droving Trade

Cattle were not the only farm animals to be driven long distances; there were at various times and in different parts of the United Kingdom droving trades in horses, sheep and pigs and even geese and turkeys. However, we are particularly concerned here with the large scale export of beef cattle to England (there was never a droving trade in dairy cattle, which were better milked locally and their milk and cheese traded). The definitive work on cattle droving is A.R.B. Haldane’s The Drove Roads of Scotland, first published in 1952 and still in print, and I have drawn heavily on this fine source.

Cattle are well suited to long distance travel. They are strong, low-maintenance (needing just regular access to grass and water), climb hills readily and can ford or swim across rivers. As herd animals they broadly stick together and one man (or boy) could attend to fifty or sixty beasts. Given sufficient time they could comfortably manage the several hundred mile trip to the south of England at a pace of around 10 to 12 miles a day.

Scottish and Irish cattle could end up anywhere with a demand for beef, but there were two principal customers. The first was London, which grew exponentially from the middle of the 17^th century and hoovered up beef from all over the country. Cattle from the north were sometimes driven directly to London, but more often their initial destination was East Anglia, where they were sold at major markets such as St. Faith’s, near Norwich. The local farmers that purchased them fattened them up following their long journey before sending them to Smithfield and the other London meat markets. The second major consumer of beef was the Royal Navy; Britain was often at war during the period and salt beef was part of the Navy’s staple diet.

Cattle droving was a hard and often precarious business and few drovers were rich men. Some major Scottish landowners, who were also large-scale cattle breeders and dealers, employed their own drovers but the majority of drovers were self-employed. Drovers had of course to be as fit as their charges; a few rode ponies but most walked with the cattle. They needed to find the best route for the prevailing weather conditions and suitable places to rest for the night, with adequate grass and water; these were known as ‘stances’. While there were inns that catered for the droving trade, most drovers slept outside with their beasts, to save money and to prevent the animals from wandering off, or to guard against theft. A long-distance drove would normally comprise at least two hundred head and some droves contained more than a thousand beasts. The drover had to employ his assistants, which may have included a “topsman”, who rode ahead on a pony to seek the best route and the next night-time stance.

Droving was a risky business financially, for both the drover and the farmers whose cattle he was seeking to sell. Few drovers had large supplies of capital and the droving trade ran on credit. The drover obtained a letter of credit and a small amount of cash from a bank and used these to buy cattle. Sometimes he would travel from farm to farm buying up individual farmers’ stock, or he might deal with local landowners, who had previously acquired their tenants’ stock in lieu of rent. The drover would agree a price and would give the farmer a promissory note, which would be cashed (hopefully) when the drover returned from his trip to England. The price included the drover’s expenses (wages and living expenses for staff and sometimes toll charges and accommodation fees for beasts and men) and the drover sought to sell the stock at a profit when he reached the English markets.

Good money was made when things went well (a large drove could be worth close on a million pounds in today’s money) but if problems arose both drover and farmer suffered financial loss. Beasts could be lost to accidents, disease, theft or negligence by the drovers. Sometimes events could affect the English markets and the drover was unable to sell at a profit. Some drovers were less than canny or scrupulous in making deals. In such cases, the liability was in theory with the drover, as he had bought the stock from the farmers, but in practice the farmers also lost, as the drovers’ promissory notes could become worthless.

Despite the potential hardship that could ensue, Scottish and Irish cattle farmers had to regard the risks of droving as occupational hazards. Many cattle rearing areas were unsuitable for other forms of agriculture and there was limited demand for beef locally, so the farmers had to trust and rely on the droving trade. Many small tenant farmers paid their rents with the promissory notes obtained from the drovers. Among the farming community, drovers did not have a high reputation for either skill or honesty and bankruptcies occurred regularly. Elite drovers were however well regarded and farmers recognised their need for them. As Haldane pointed out, the trade could not have continued for three hundred years without drovers of skill, stamina and integrity.

Cattle Droving in Galloway and the Rhins

Galloway was a leading area for rearing beef cattle throughout the droving period and there is evidence of cattle being exported to England from Galloway from at least the early 17^th century. Dumfries Tryst (as cattle markets were called) was a major market for both local cattle and for those driven from the Highlands and from Ireland. The local Galloway breed was well regarded (at least among local farmers) as being hardy and for producing high-quality meat. Samuel Smith, author of the General View of the Agriculture of Galloway (1813) devoted no fewer than 10 pages to extolling the physical virtues of the black Galloway. It was however smaller in size than some competing breeds. Smith reckoned that at the time of his writing, 20,000 Galloways were exported to England each year. The Old Statistical Accounts, written in the 1790s, relate that black Galloway cattle were reared extensively throughout the Rhins, the large majority of beasts destined for the English markets. Droves would not however have begun in the Rhins but from the markets at Stranraer and Glenluce. Some names of Galloway drovers have come down to us; Samuel Smith mentions (approvingly) Messrs Smith, Corsons, McLellans and Hopes and mid-19^th century articles in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard mention long-distance droves being led by Messrs Jolly, Swan, Stroyan and McQueen.

A distinctive Belted Galloway. Most Galloway cattle were completely black or dun in colour, but the sub-breed of "Belties" may have resulted from a cross with a Dutch breed. Note the small size compared with modern breeds.

Irish Cattle and the Rhins

Galloway cattle had competition, at least for some of the period, from Irish beef cattle, which were similarly driven to England. Local commentators were understandably sniffy about the quality of Irish cattle, holding that their meat was inferior to the black Galloways’. They had to acknowledge, however, that Irish cattle were bigger than the Galloway. Some Galloway farmers reared Irish cattle rather than black Galloways, while others experimented (unsuccessfully) with improving the Galloway breed by crossing with Irish stock. But the majority of Irish cattle simply passed through Galloway, following drove routes from ports on the Rhins to Dumfries and on to England.

While some Irish cattle were shipped directly to England, many made the short sea crossing from Donaghadee or Newry to Portpatrick. The trade began in the early 17^th century and by the 1660s it has been estimated that up to 50,000 Irish cattle a year were travelling to England. This led to concerns in England and Scotland that the market could be saturated and in the late 1660s imports of Irish cattle were banned. The ban lasted until 1765, though as Gallovidians were adept at smuggling it was probably not total.

Following the repeal of the ban, cattle imports from Ireland became extensive. Portpatrick was again the main port of entry, its convenience enhanced by John Smeaton’s harbour, built in 1776. By 1790 there were six boats of 50 tons each based in Portpatrick that were devoted to the cattle trade, with 55,000 beasts (and 10,000 horses) imported over a five-year period. Other parts of the Rhins attempted to cash in on the trade also. Andrew McDouall, Laird of Logan, established Port Logan in the 1820s, with a new harbour and village, in an attempt to attract some of the cattle traffic.

The harbour at Port Logan was built in the 1820s, replacing an earlier pier that had fallen into ruins. Laird McDouall of Logan hoped to capitalise on the trade in Irish cattle, but Port Logan was not a success.

The Drove Routes of Galloway

Retracing the routes taken by the cattle drovers through Galloway is not straightforward. When droving became established in the early 1600s there were few if any roads in the region and for much of their journey the drovers would have found routes for themselves across the hills and moors. Some areas of Galloway were under cultivation and landowners naturally objected to herds of cattle trampling their crops, so specific drove roads (known as ‘raikes’) were marked out in some places, 50 to 100 feet wide with turf dykes on either side. A raike from Gretna to Annan was established in 1619 and another from Dumfries to New Galloway in 1697. In between, the general line of the drove routes can be traced by “joining the dots” between known cattle markets. This identifies a route that broadly follows the modern day A75, from Glenluce through Newton Stewart and Gatehouse of Fleet to Kelton Hill (now known as Rhonehouse, near Castle Douglas), which was a major market centre and then to Dumfries. An alternative route to Dumfries followed the present day A712 from Minigaff through New Galloway and Crocketford.

In the late 1700s the Military Road from Portpatrick to Carlisle was constructed, doubtless inspired by drove routes, and then the Mail Trust built the turnpike road that became the A75 from Stranraer to Dumfries. The drovers were not necessarily grateful for such roads and many avoided them if possible, believing that the hard surfaces were bad for their beasts’ feet (cattle wore metal shoes when walking on roads) and being reluctant to pay toll charges.

The specific route taken by Irish cattle from Portpatrick to their first stance at Glenluce is similarly speculative, but this is my suggestion. The droves would not have followed the Military Road, as this led through Stranraer, but would have taken a more direct route across the open country. After being unloaded from the boat (by the unceremonious means of being forced over the side and required to swim to shore) the herd would have gathered on Portpatrick Common, a field on the hillside to the south of the village (now the site of Galloway Point caravan park). They would then have probably been driven south east towards Port of Spittal, following the line of the present minor road past the caravan sites. They may have then borne east, heading over the low hills past Stoneykirk village to the flat land on which West Freugh aerodrome now stands. Their route may well have followed the runway north-east to head around the top of Torrs Warren (which would not have been crossed as it was used for rearing rabbits) and reach Luce Bay by Ringdoo Point. The beasts would have been driven along the sands to the Piltanton Burn, crossing it at Cuttybatty ford, before heading north towards Castle of Park and reaching a stance on the west bank of the Water of Luce, which was the site of a market. Next day they would have crossed the river and passed Glenluce village on their long tramp to Dumfries.

Possible route of the drove road for Irish Cattle from Portpatrick to their first Stance at Glenluce

The road from Portpatrick to Spittal marks the likely beginning of the drovers' long journey from Portpatrick to the east of England

The Decline of Cattle Droving

Cattle droving was ended by the 19^th century transport revolution. By the 1830s, steamships were big and fast enough to transport cattle reliably from Ireland to ports in England close to the markets. By the time of the New Statistical Account in 1839, cattle traffic through Portpatrick had declined from a peak of 20,000 beasts per year to around 1,000. Port Logan never properly got going as a commercial port, being too vulnerable to bad weather and established too late to compete with the steamships. Then the railways came along. The Portpatrick & Wigtownshire Joint railway opened in 1861 and eventually took over the long distance movement of cattle. Droving did not end immediately; droves continued during the early years of the railways. Some dealers baulked at the fares charged by the railway companies while others used a combination of drove and train, driving cattle from Dumfries to Carlisle, where they were loaded onto trains to Norwich. But by the end of the 19^th century, long-distance cattle droving was a lost art.

At the same time, agriculture on the Rhins was changing. By the time of the New Statistical Accounts, dairy farming with Ayrshire cattle was starting to replace the black Galloways, their small stature finally making them commercially unattractive. Many farms turned to dairying, with cheese making and pig keeping as further sources of income (pigs were fed on whey, a by-product of cheese production). Today, Dumfries and Galloway region has the greatest proportion of cattle in Scotland (24% of the total) and the Rhins has one of the highest densities of cattle in the country, with a high proportion of dairy farms. Both black Galloways and Ayrshires are now “heritage” breeds, the large majority of cattle on the Rhins today being huge modern breeds such as Limousin and Holstein Friesians.

If cattle droving is thought of at all, it tends to be regarded as a romantic notion, out of the pages of Sir Walter Scott. It is easy to forget that for close on three hundred years, the livelihood of thousands of farmers and the economy of much of Scotland depended on the skills and hardiness of cattle drovers. As an anonymous commentator put it in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard in 1844, “We wish these public-spirited men success in their precarious and laborious trade, for without them what would the Dumfries-shire and Galloway farmer do?”

Sources Used

Articles from The Dumfries and Galloway Standard available at the British Newspaper Archive.

Old and New Statistical Accounts of Wigtonshire Parishes.

Roy Military Survey and 19^th Century Ordnance Survey maps available from the National Library of Scotland Map Images  
Agriculture Land Use in Scotland: Cattle. Scottish Government. 

Haldane ARB (1952/2008) The Drove Roads of Scotland. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd.

Koufolpoulos A (2004) The Cattle Trades of Scotland 1603-1745. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.

McCullough A (2000) Galloway: A Land Apart. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd.
Smith S (1813) General View of the Agriculture of Wigtonshire. Google ebook.