This is a map of the route we hope to take, which crosses 4 separate farms.  The whole route is grazed by sheep but not cattle.

It has become clear that, due to the restrictions around moving cattle which involve a complete standstill of farms that they pass through for 13 days, it would take us 6 weeks or longer to travel the 7 miles or so out from Knockengorroch to Bellsbank.

If the cattle enter another farm both they and all the animals on that farm must stay put for 13 days.  Obviously if we were to observe this rule (even if the farmers were able to keep their animals on lock down for that long) the seven mile journey would take us 6 weeks!

An alternative would be to treat each piece of ground we move onto as a show ground, which means it needs to be cleared of all animals for 28 days beforehand.  As these pieces of land are large sections of moorland or hillside grazed by sheep it is not possible to clear all the animals off for 28 days.

As a result we will not be able to walk the whole route unbroken with the cows and will have to use a cattle truck to ferry them over all farms but one. (Thanks to WH McWilliam Cattle Haulage, Alexander Moffat and Davy Macmillan at Eriff farm for their help in this.)

To walk cattle across the land in this day and age, is not possible without a series of restrictions around clearing the land that is impossible for upland sheep farmers to observe.  The UK has some of the strictest restrictions around animal movements in the world.