SHE was big, fierce and hairy but Flora the heifer was truly fit for a princess yesterday.
The Princess Royal officially opened the Drovers Exhibition at Dingwall Auction Mart and in return she was presented with the one-year-old beast from Skye.
Flora the 19th of Dunvegan, as the animal has been named, will now take up residence at Princess Anne’s own farm at Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire.
David MacDonald, 44, of Corriebheinn Farms, Portree, reared the animal at Dunvegan. He said: “We feel very privileged to have been asked to give the animal to Princess Anne. In the farming world we see her as a champion of our cause in good times and bad.
“We will miss the animal but we know she will be in a safe pair of hands.”
He said Flora, who was sporting Clan Ranald tartan and heather in her harness, was from the Torloish blood line in Mull, was of very good stock and had a sister who was supreme champion at Oban seven years ago. The animal was presented to the princess in the mart arena by Mr MacDonald, his wife, Alison, and his three children, Angela, 13, Alexander, 11 and Emma, 3.
Wearing cream trousers, a yellow-and-green shirt and a navy jacket, the princess arrived by helicopter at the Ross-shire mart, and took more than half-an-hour to study the £80,000 Drovers Exhibition, housed on the first floor of the building.
Around 200 guests were entertained by the young musicians of Feis Rois while they waited patiently for two hours for the princess to enter the main arena where she unveiled a plaque officially opening the exhibition.
The princess thanked the organisers for inviting her and said: “I have nothing but admiration for what the drovers did and what you have done to herald their achievements.”
Liberal Democrat MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West John Farquhar Munro said: “This exhibition records part of a very important piece of our heritage in the Highlands.
“I’m delighted that Princess Anne has officially opened the exhibition and we even arranged a beautiful day for her with blazing sunshine.”
Dingwall councillor Margaret Paterson said: “This is a superb exhibition and many people come to Dingwall just to see it. A tremendous amount of work has gone into it and it is fitting that it is in the auction mart. We are delighted that the princess has come. She is held in very high regard, especially in farming circles.”
Highland Livestock Heritage Society chairman David Henderson said: “We are so pleased that Princess Anne came to the exhibition. She took a real interest in it and is quite an expert in it.
“I think she was fascinated by the history in the Highland story.”
He also launched an appeal to raise money for a £50,000 sculpture of a Highland bull to stand outside the mart as a permanent memorial to the Highland drovers.