‘We noticed that whenever the cows were grazing near the road, car brake lights would go on, the doors would fly open, and people would be out with their phones.”
When farmers Neale and Janet McQuistin of High Airyolland, near New Luce, realised they weren’t the only ones with a passion for Highland cattle, they came up with a plan to offer a unique range of safari-style farm tours.
A worldwide craze for Highland cattle, combined with the mobile phone and Instagram revolution, meant their “germ of an idea” has developed into a highly successful, multi award-winning agri-tourism enterprise: Kitchen Coos & Ewes.
“It has taken our breath away,” says Janet. “The reviews have been off the scale, our videos have gone viral, we’re now working every day of the week and we’re fully booked all the time, with waiting lists.”
“What’s unique about us is that we take people into the coos’ world and see them at their most natural,” says Neale, who introduced Highland cattle to High Airyolland 20 years ago.
“Instead of putting the cattle in a pen, we put the people in the pen and the cows can decide if they want to meet them. Everything is on the cows’ terms.”
With a small-scale soft launch in 2019, the McQuistins soon realised the demand was bigger than they had bargained for. “We were surprised that no one had done this before,” says Neale.
They ordered a bigger trailer and began renovating an old byre for post-tour teas, with a plan to open their doors in May 2020.
The pandemic scuppered that but, instead, Neale began live-streaming from the calving field: “Through that we built up an online, worldwide community,” says Janet. “People got to know our coos and their stories, and everyone was so excited for it opening up properly.”
In 2021 Kitchen Coos & Ewes had 1,000 visitors, despite only being able to run their small walking tour or take limited numbers, socially distanced, on the trailer.
In 2022, their numbers doubled, doubling again to 4,000 last year, with 700 gift vouchers sold over Christmas. More than 6,000 people are expected to visit in 2024.
“There’s something so appealing about the look of the Highland cow,” Neale adds. “There’s Highland cow merchandise everywhere. We’ve had women comparing their Highland cow tattoos and one man took his shirt off to show us his Highland cow tattoo covering his whole back.”
Because of the farm’s remote location, most visitors choose to stay nearby, [rvodong a welcome boost for local accommodation providers, though one Swedish couple flew from Stockholm to Edinburgh and made the trip to Galloway by hire-car before returning home the same day.
With full-time tour guide Chase Byerly now working alongside Neale and Janet, the team offers the original, trailer-based, Insta Coo Tour, a Cream Tea Coo Tour, a Walking Tour and a Hands-On Coo Tour, which was introduced last September.
With 30 Highland cattle, 60 Highland crosses, 100 pedigree Beltex sheep and 100 other sheep, High Airyolland is still very much a working farm, though the McQuistins now take a less intensive and more sustainable, regenerative approach.
Tours stop during November, the weaning season for the cattle, and between mid-February and the end of March for lambing.
The female Highlanders are all used for breeding and some of the bulls are also kept. New markets in conservation are opening up for others, with all of last year’s bull calves going to a farm in Yorkshire for regenerative grazing to restore curlew habitats.
“We want to be that true, authentic farm experience, letting people see how a real farm is run,” says Neale. “We are still excited by it because our visitors are.”
“At the end of each day we’re buzzing,” says Janet.
Meeting the moo-vers and shakers
Writer Carol Hogarth joined a Hands-On Coo Tour
Our first introduction to the Highland Cows at High Airyolland were two adorable five-week-old calves, Jock and Tam, who were being bottle fed in a shed as their mothers were not able to rear them.
With all that cuteness, it was difficult to concentrate on Neale’s introduction to the farm, though the story of his long family history there was fascinating. While Neale is the seventh generation of his family to farm in the Luce valley, Janet can trace her roots there back 11 generations.
Tour guide Chase led us to the open-sided safari trailer, complete with cushioned seats, transparent screens for windy, rainy days, ramp access and wheelchair anchor points making the tours accessible for all.
Towed slowly out of the farmyard by Neale in the tractor, Chase told us about how Neale first decided to bring Highlanders to Airyolland. During a fishing trip on the Knoydart Peninsula, two Highland cows had emerged out of the mist and joined him in the river. They chased his fish away, but he was struck by their beauty and knew they could handle the harsh climate of his upland farm.
Trundling along a track between woodland and fields, Chase explained the importance of biodiversity on the farm and how they aim to create a “mosaic of different habitats” with the Highlanders playing their part by grazing indiscriminately, keeping dominant species such as gorse from taking over.
We passed the retirement field, where a few older ‘girls’ are enjoying a more leisurely pace of life, and entered the adolescents’ field, where these young animals would provide our “hands-on” experience, though strictly on their terms.
Neale drove into a large, round pen to contain the “wild and unpredictable animals” (us) before we were released from the trailer and invited to interact with the cows.
A beautiful array of colours from black, through various shades of dun and red to almost blonde, the herd made a spectacular sight and seemed only too happy to come and meet us.
Chase and Neale introduced the various characters so we got to know them by name, and, over the gates, we could brush them and scratch them behind the ears.
We were then invited to give them some food before we boarded the trailer again and headed off to meet the mums and their babies in the next field.
Chase explained the herd hierarchy, with the females always dominant, and the boys playing second fiddle and we enjoyed – from the safety of the trailer - watching the calves playing and doing zoomies while their mums enjoyed their snacks.
Finally, it was off to meet the farm’s Supermoodel. Retired cow Sorcha – “she’s gorgeous and she knows it” – enjoys striking a pose on a rocky hillock in her field. She has appeared in Italian Vogue (a guest’s photograph of her won a competition the magazine was running) and was photographed in a custom-made cycling jersey to promote one of the teams in last year’s World Cycling Championships. Earlier this year she was the cover girl for a national motorhome magazine.
We ended the tour back at the Old Byre, where we chatted about our experience over a wonderful afternoon tea before a visit the shop where, of course, everything from cushions to keyrings and chocolates come in the form of Highland coos.
Photography by Mike Bolam
