Sheep from Litla Dimon

From an information panel at Thorshavn Museum.

SHEEP FROM LITLA DIMON

Approximately the year 1600, the Faroe Islands were subject to large sheep mortalities. Nearly all the sheep died, and it was necessary to import new stock. New sheep strains came partly from Iceland and partly from the Shetland and Orkney islands.

These three sheep were shot on the island Little Dimon in 1844, and sent to a Conservatory in Denmark. It is said about the sheep from Little Dimon, (the strain) they were almost completely wild, very difficult to manage and did not provide the same amount of meat as other new strains did. Approximately the year 1860, the last sheep of this strain were shot on Little Dimon, thus becoming extinct. The "Dlmunarseydurin" (sheep from Little Dimon) were very similar to the sheep which still inhabit the island Soay of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, in the Irish Sea.

During excavations on the Viking settlement in the village of Eidi, remains of sheep have been found which are deemed to be of the same origin as those preserved from Little Dimon. This indicates that the sheep strain known from Little Dimon up to 1860, was present on the islands before the massive mortalities that occurred in 1600 in all probability this is the same sheep strain that was introduced by the very first settlers of the Faroe islands.