Smallest Sheep Breed - We'll take a brief look at some of the other rare breeds, but if you really want to do some serious research in this area, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) and the National Sheep Association, both in England, oversee the 70 or so rare breeds of sheep found in the British Isles. Quite possibly the smallest breed of sheep in the world, the Ouessant, is native to an island of the same name off the coast of Brittany (yes, there is an Ouessant Sheep Society). This primitive breed is believed to be as small as it is since its native habitat is hilly terrain covered with rock and scrub, not lush grazing by any means. The Ouessant is a very hardy animal and can be kept on smaller acreage than most other breeds. One theory is that the Ouessant was introduced to Brittany by the Vikings, but this has never been proven.

Tailless Cats And Mouse Brown Sheep - The Isle of Man is famous for its tailless Manx cat, but in the sheep world, is also famous for a rare breed called the Manx Loaghtan sheep. This is a rather small breed having  quite soft wool. The word Loaghtan is Gaelic, and means mouse brown, the typical color of this breed. From Scotland we have the Soay sheep, a small primitive breed not much larger than the Ouessant. The interesting fact about the Soay is that it is regarded by many has being the link between wild sheep and domesticated sheep. A feral population of Soay sheep can be seen on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, St. Kilda. Another Scottish breed, running free on several islands of the west coast of Scotland is the Boreray sheep. These isolated, feral Boreray sheep, provide an insight into what Scottish sheep hers looked like in the 18th century, and with only a few thousand still in existence is among Great Britain’s protected and rare breeds of sheep.

There is a rare sheep center in East Sussex, England where, if you visit them, you can see up close a fairly large number of different rare breeds of sheep, a few of which were introduced to America in times past. Included in these breeds are the Cotswold, Dorset Down, Greyface Dartmoor -  noted for its long, curly wool, the Hebridean, a nearly extinct breed called the Norfork Horns, and the Shetland, noted for its fine wool. The Shetland is also raised commercially in the United States but presently in quite small numbers. All in all there are nearly 20 different breeds on display there.

Somewhat surprisingly, most of the rare breeds of sheep listed can be purchased if you want to raise some yourself, the wool from some breeds is marketed, and even the meat is placed on the market, something you might not expect from a rare breed. But, rare does not always mean nearly extinct, and many of the small farms growing these animals have sufficiently sized flocks to allow them to market a percentage of the sheep. It does seem fitting that these animals can be raised in accordance with their intended purposes, and not simply kept as museum pieces. The various sheep societies, ranging from national associations, to regional societies, to the Salvation Army (in the United Kingdom) appear to be doing a very good job of ensuring that these rare breeds of sheep will be with us for a long time to come. As was said at the beginning of this article, a study of rare breeds of sheep is both educational and rewarding. You might even want one or two for your own.