An image of massive power … the great, perhaps the greatest icon of British natural history …
Simon Schama’s words. Where did these beasts come from? How have they survived? You may have your own ideas!
You may well have heard of the King Bull of Chillingham who leads the herd and mates with any willing cow. At some times there has clearly been a single very dominant bull, but things are usually more complicated than that and it can appear that individual bulls set up their own personal mini-kingdoms.
This combination of an ancient castle and these amazing cattle is totally unique worldwide. Has the herd roamed the woods and forests of Britain since prehistoric times? Are they connected with the bulls sacrificed by Roman soldiers on Hadrian’s Wall? Were they put together in late medieval times by a baron keen to upstage his neighbours’ deer parks?
Come and work it out for yourself!