Have the Soay on St. Kilda been crossbred?
No one can say for certain if the sheep on St. Kilda have been crossbred over the course of their long history. Put any breed of sheep under the microscope and you are apt to find infusion of other breeds, but because of the isolation for thousands of years of the remote and inaccessible island of Soay, the sheep on Soay have arguably been pure breeding for longer than is the case for any other breed of sheep. Its isolation has guaranteed this purity like no other breed. It is one of the faunal treasures of Britain. [Williamson, Boyd, 1960] The remoteness and inaccessibility of the island of Soay is best appreciated by a visit to circumnavigate this lost world rising 1000 feet sheer out of the North Atlantic.
