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Cattle in Britain in Historical Times
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Published 2014
From prehistoric times domesticated cattle have been important in the British Isles. In Ireland they represented a form of wealth, and the title of one of the earliest surviving pieces of epic literature, ‘The Cattle Raid of Cooley’ (Táin Bó Cuailnge), speaks for itself.
The native domestic cattle were based on the gene pools of those brought by neolithic farmers and their successors, the Beaker people, with some aurochs blood. Some of the small, sturdy black breeds of British cattle may descend from this ancient stock. British cattle were exported to the Continent both before and after the arrival of the Romans. According to Julius Caesar, the Britons lived on milk and flesh.
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