June 2025

Two long legged Dexters were kept at an Iron Age site to replicate a farm in 300 B.C. The attempt was to recreate what some of our Celtic ancestors would have experienced in their environment as close to what archaeological evidence in 1974 could validate. A round wattle and daub building was constructed with a thatched roof on site, and it withstood two Hampshire hurricanes with no ill effect. A man named Peter Reynolds was testing hypotheses to establish or to refute established theories during his era. He researched to establish accurate theories on the livestock and crops that would have been grown at that time. He wanted to establish facts and create a representation of the time as accurately as he could.
The dark wooled small breed of Soay sheep were kept, as it is commonly believed they are as close as possible to the Iron age sheep genetically, because they remained isolated on St. Kilda for thousands of years. Then there are the two long legged Dexter cattle being kept that are believed to be the same body size and weight as the extinct Bos longifrons. This seems to be what was considered the best match for the time. When researching the subject, I found that McKenny Hughes says “that Bos longifrons was a very small animal; probably not larger than a Kerry cow.” It was likewise believed that the color of the British and Celtic Bos longifrons was black but with a shorter horn shape than is seen in Kerry and Dexter cattle. With those considerations it is understandable that long legged Dexters that have often been called Dexters of the Kerry type would have been used as the best choice for the day. Newspaper article: Country Life 27 June 1974