BCCS September Newsletter 2022

Part of the Charolais herd at Allanfauld
Archie MacGregor and family, along
with son John, run a big hill farm
with Charolais, a few Limousin, some
commercial cows and pedigree Scottish
Blackfaced, Texel and Bluefaced
Leicester sheep. They have had good
success with their Charolais over the
past 50 years, but probably more with
the sheep having sold a Blackfaced ram
for £130,000 (about $200,000 CAD) in the
past. Great stockmen, who were one
of the few who calve their heifers at 24
months to try to keep the size down
We were welcomed by a Dogs and quads are used at Allanfauld to move these Bluefaced Leicester
a little on their wet soils. Our supper grandson piping us into sheep while the leading livestock photographer in the UK (Catherine
Allanfauld
MacGregor) takes pictures
included beef, Yorkshire pudding and
skirlie (a traditional Scottish dish), with
some Scottish background music in
their shed, before we were off to Gretna
Green for the night.
We got to spend most of the
morning looking around Gretna
Green which is a famous place for
runaway brides from England. In the
middle of the 18th-century, English
law stated couples had to reach the
age of 21 before they could marry
without their parents’ consent and
their marriage had to take place in a
church. In Scotland, you could marry
Archie MacGregor showing their Scottish Blackface sheep at Allanfauld
on the spot in a simple “marriage by
declaration or handfasting ceremony”
only requiring two witnesses. This
soon led to thousands of young
couples running away to marry over
the border. It is owned by the Houston
family, also Charolais breeders, who
have turned this historic blacksmith
shop into a tourist and wedding
destination for visitors from around
the world. Candace and I visited with
Lucy Houston and there are now 16
chapels, which do 4,000 weddings per
year and there are 900,000 visitors to
their Gretna Green establishment. This
family business has grown over the
past 130 years to include a museum,
gift shops and hotels. Marriage anvil at Greta Green Handfasting sculpture at Gretna Green
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- No bull works harder for the farmer, the plate and the planet -
September newsletter 22.indd 74 16/09/2022 15:01:19