History of Rascarrel & Auchencairn Texels

Rascarrel Texels was founded in 1989, primarily as a hobby for Tommy and Fiona but with the addition of son Matthew and subsequently triplets, Ewan, Tom and Rebecca, the children also established the Auchencairn flock with their mother. The flocks are now run together but have remained a major family concern with all family members being involved in the breeding, feeding, lambing and showing of these well known flocks.

Rascarrel Farm runs to 417 acres lying around Rascarrel Bay, near Dalbeattie in Kircudbrightshire, South West Scotland and has been in Fiona’s family for nearly 50 years as a Dairy Unit of 200 Holstein cows. The Texels are now a major part of the business and have become renowned throughout the UK for their quality females in particular, which are well sought after at both national sales and privately.

The flock was founded on eleven ewes, two each from Gaitsgill, Stonefieldhill and Cambwell and 5 from Pergill. Since that time, home bred females have been used to build the numbers to the 90 ewes the family have today, with the addition of only five females bought in since then. In the flocks’ early days, Cambwell Uplift had a great influence in establishing the female lines. He was followed by Turin Estonian, who introduced bone and carcase quality into the stock followed by Kelton Young Gun, a son of Annan Vigour, who jelled well with his predecessors and influenced the females which were retained.

The introduction of Baltier Wizard as a stock sire in 1993 paid dividends, when a ewe by him took the Supreme Championship at the Royal Show in 1997 putting the flock well and truly on the map! She also took the Breed and Interbreed championships at Dumfries in the same year. Wizard’s stable companion at that time, Stonebridge Fantastic, who also bred well, was sadly lost to FMD in 2001 on a joint owners holding. Cambwell Impressive and Tophill Jewel have helped develop the flock further and at a time when The National Scrapie Plan was hugely influential on all breeds, these rams also improved the genotypes of the flock. More recently Douganhill King, a son of Jersey Dudeck, has had a large impact on the sale of ram lambs and females as have Templand Megane, Glenside King and Hullhouse Northern Light.

To date ram lambs have sold to a top of 12,000gns for Rascarrel Masterpiece in 2006. The shearlings from the flock also sold to a top of 4,600gns at the same sale. Sheep are normally sold at Carlisle, Lanark, Worcester, Builth Wells and Castle Douglas and both males and females are also sold privately.

More recently the flocks have come in the top three in the Solway & Tyne Flock Competition, with prizes for one of the current Stock Rams Kerryhill Oliver and the ewe lambs in the flocks. A gimmer by Kerryhill Oliver also sold for 2000gns at the 2010 Carlisle club sale giving the flock the top average of £1150 for the 5 sold. A much admired gimmer by another of the current stock rams, Rascarrel Och Aye, made 8,500gns at the Christmas Cracker Sale in 2010 putting the flock in the top three averages for Invitational sales for the year when they averaged £2129 for 11 sold.

The flock, while having developed to being a major part of the family business remains a family concern with Tommy, Fiona, Mathew, Ewan, Tom and Rebecca all involved and is set to continue as the hobby that it started out as for the family as well as one of the top flocks in the country.