The Sheep Of Scotland

My wife and I had a saying while we were in Scotland - "Throw a rock and hit a castle, spit and hit a sheep." Sheep are everywhere in this country, from Skye and Inverness to Galloway and Lothian and The Borders. Where else would Scottish woolens have come from, after all? On the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, there is one woolens shop after another. There was one we visited that exhibited its own looms among the merchandise, which included every tartan imaginable, a surreal rainbow of plaid. We took many photographs of sheep, but some of the best shots we missed. Driving through The Borders on the way to Langholm, we saw a herd of sheep being chased across the side of a gigantic hill. The herd was a cluster of white dots, moving incredibly fast, followed by a border collie that was barely visible. My wife wanted to capture this on her camcorder, but it was all over in an instant. In Liddesdale itself, the sheep were bold, sometimes standing in the middle of the road in front of our Vauxhall. I saw a few near a stone bridge and stopped to snap their picture, but as soon as I bounded out of the car, camera in hand, they were gone. They must have sensed I was an Elliott.